"The Parsis consider land and water to be sacred and they must not be “polluted” with a dead body. In the process of excarnation, a bare corpse was positioned on the walls of one of three circular wells – one for children, one for men, one for women – awaiting scavenger birds.
When there was no more flesh left on the body, the skeleton tumbled inside the deep well connected to a further four external wells through channels. Layers of charcoal and sand fitted inside each well filter the remains before they fell and mixed with the soil.
With the vultures gone, this ritual is on the brink of extinction too.
“The vultures disappeared nearly 30-35 years ago from the Tower of Silence,” Asad Rahmani, Director of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) told Al Jazeera.
“At that time, it was presumed that they disappeared due to change in the land use, and construction of tall buildings all around. But I think vultures declined mainly due to the prevalence of Diclofenac – a pain killer that had just come into use for humans.”
The massive decline in the vulture population across Mumbai and the entire Maharashtra state began from 1992-93 onwards when the Indian government opened this drug for use in livestock as well. Today, there is not a single vulture in the state, according to Rahmani.
“Diclofenac is lethal to vultures. It does not matter from where they get it, from a dead Parsi or from a dead cow,” Rahmani said.
As corpses take longer, sometimes eight weeks, to decompose fully, the tower of silence continues to be a scene of partially decomposed bodies. Photography in the area is discouraged and non-Parsis are prohibited from entering the excarnation site.
"
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/4/7/without-vultures-fate-of-parsi-sky-burials-uncertain
When there was no more flesh left on the body, the skeleton tumbled inside the deep well connected to a further four external wells through channels. Layers of charcoal and sand fitted inside each well filter the remains before they fell and mixed with the soil.
With the vultures gone, this ritual is on the brink of extinction too.
“The vultures disappeared nearly 30-35 years ago from the Tower of Silence,” Asad Rahmani, Director of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) told Al Jazeera.
“At that time, it was presumed that they disappeared due to change in the land use, and construction of tall buildings all around. But I think vultures declined mainly due to the prevalence of Diclofenac – a pain killer that had just come into use for humans.”
The massive decline in the vulture population across Mumbai and the entire Maharashtra state began from 1992-93 onwards when the Indian government opened this drug for use in livestock as well. Today, there is not a single vulture in the state, according to Rahmani.
“Diclofenac is lethal to vultures. It does not matter from where they get it, from a dead Parsi or from a dead cow,” Rahmani said.
As corpses take longer, sometimes eight weeks, to decompose fully, the tower of silence continues to be a scene of partially decomposed bodies. Photography in the area is discouraged and non-Parsis are prohibited from entering the excarnation site.
"
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/4/7/without-vultures-fate-of-parsi-sky-burials-uncertain