Vultures no more a 'bad omen' in this Nepal village

Kathmandu: Just five years ago, vultures were considered as harbingers of bad fortune in a village in western Nepal.

So much so, that when a silk cotton tree was sheltering vultures in Madanpokhara village in Palpa district, 250 km west of Kathmandu, the villagers decided to cut the tree itself.

But today, the situation seems to be different than what it was merely half a decade ago, with people having changed their attitudes towards the endangered bird.

Radio Madanpokhara, a local FM station, did the magic by spreading the message of conservation of vultures in the village. The radio aired features on vultures, terming the scavengers as "nature cleaners."

Soon after the campaign, the villagers seem to have understood that vultures were not dirty creatures, but were meant to clean the environment. Then the trees were saved, so were the vultures. Five years have passed since then.

Now the villagers have realised that vultures have not just helped in keeping the village clean, but have also brought good fortune to the villagers.

The village has now been developed into a vulture sanctuary, with many tourists visiting the area from far places to watch the scavengers flying over their heads.

These days, everyone in the village is actively involved in conserving the endangered bird, and the positive attitude of the locals towards the vultures has resulted in remarkable rise in their population.

Now the village is home to more than 100 vultures.

The locals also stop and watch the flight of a large flock of the rare bird time and again. However, for foreign tourists, the experience is exhilarating.

Children of the villagers are also quite fond of the birds. With their eyes fixed on the tree, or on the sky, they go on counting their numbers on their hands - fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two... The counting often goes beyond 100.

All the vultures quietly perch on the branches of the huge old tree, with passersby stopping to watch them. As the morning gives way to afternoon, the birds become more active and noisy.

"In the morning, they are silent. Then they begin to fight for food. And by the evening, they make too much noise," said a local Ram Prasad Sharma. "At night, they seem to fight for space - it feels the space in the tree is no more sufficient for them.