India’s vulture crisis, which started in the 1980s, caused the Parsi Zoroastrian community to reconsider one of its practices. Traditionally, the community does not bury or cremate its dead; instead, corpses are laid out in a Dakhma, or Tower of Silence, for carrion birds to consume. The steep decline of the vulture population meant that bodies would just slowly decompose. In January this year, this was being debated at the Samast Anjuman (a community organisation) in Navsari, Gujarat; 160 voted on whether a burial ground should be allotted. An overwhelming majority, 156, chose change. There was one peculiarity in this progressive event: no women voted.

Read more at www.thehindu.com