The differences among BPP [Bombay Parsi Panchayat] trustees, between reformists and conservatives, have led to some unseemly squabbles over...
The differences among BPP [Bombay Parsi Panchayat] trustees, between reformists and conservatives, have led to some unseemly squabbles over the last few decades. One of the major sources of contention was the functioning of the Towers of Silence at Doongerwadi.
According to the Vendidad, Zoroastrianism has a unique system of disposal of the dead – dokhmenishini – because cremation pollutes fire, which is considered sacred, and burial is unhygienic. In ancient Iran, the bodies were left on hilltops in pits so that they could be devoured by wild animals or scavenging birds. In the 1940s, the Iranian monarch, Reza Shah, banned this method of disposing of the dead, but in India, Parsis still cling to this tradition in towns that have dakhmas.
The system worked efficiently in Bombay for centuries, thanks to the city’s large vulture population which swooped down on the bodies almost as soon as they were relinquished to the dakhmas. But towards the end of the twentieth century, India’s vulture population practically vanished.
This drastic decline was traced to the anti-inflammatory drug Diclofenac, which was frequently fed to cattle and other livestock but also prescribed as a painkiller for human beings. Since the vultures feed primarily on the carcasses of dead...
