Q10: APSC Prelims 2022 GS-II: Previous Year Question with Answer

Read the following passage carefully and answer the question : Evolution has designed the vultures to be the ultimate scavengers. Enormous wingspans allow them to circle in the air for hours. Their beaks, while rather horrifying, are weak by bird standards, made to scoop and eat flesh. However unappealing they may seem, vultures serve an important role in the ecological cycle, processing the dead bodies of animals. Only 20 years ago, India had plenty of vultures—flocks so enormous they darkened the skies. But by 1999, their numbers had dropped due to a mysterious kidney ailment. By 2008, 99.9% of India's vultures were gone. It was finally discovered that they had been killed by a drug called Diclofenac. Indians revere their cows and when a cow shows signs of pain, they treat it with the pain reliever Diclofenac. After the animal died, the vultures would eat the carcass, though the vultures boast of one of the world's most efficient digestive systems they cannot digest Diclofenac. Sometimes vultures feed on carcasses laced with poison intended to kill jackals and other predatory carnivores. India banned the use of Diclofenac for veterinary use in 2006, but it is still widely used. The near extinction of vultures has caused diseases in the country as rats and dogs moved in to take their place—spreading pathogens that would have otherwise been destroyed by the vultures. On the basis of the above passage, which of the following can be inferred as the major cause of the death of vultures?