India, Feb. 25 -- * It is not often that while rambling through reeds engulfing the marshes, a huge vulture is flushed out instead of startled, migratory Mallards and teal. Last week at the Jainti Mata dam in the Shivalik foothills, a Himalayan vulture rose from the reeds and flapped noisily to a perch on the flanking hillock. I suspected it had been feeding on a carcass of a wild animal, most probably of a Sambar fawn slaughtered by domesticated dogs. The dogs foray opportunistically from neighbouring villages as shorelines advance and water retreats in the run-up to monsoon.

My assumption flowed from the happenings of 2021 when a drought at the dams had led to wanton killing of fawns by dog packs. Vultures had descended in big numbers ...