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title: ""The Parsis consider land and water to be sacred and they must not be…"
date: 2023-07-23
source: facebook
type: Archer T. Ships shared a link.
---

# "The Parsis consider land and water to be sacred and they must not be…

*July 23, 2023 · Facebook*

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[https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/4/7/without-vultures-fate-of-parsi-sky-burials-uncertain](https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/4/7/without-vultures-fate-of-parsi-sky-burials-uncertain){target="_blank"}
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\"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.\
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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.\
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With the vultures gone, this ritual is on the brink of extinction too.\
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"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.\
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"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."\
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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.\
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"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.\
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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.\
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[https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/4/7/without-vultures-fate-of-parsi-sky-burials-uncertain](https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2015/4/7/without-vultures-fate-of-parsi-sky-burials-uncertain){target="_blank"}
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