These medieval burial sites are now home to a colony of endangered vultures.
The cenotaphs of the Orchha Bundels of the Rajput kings stand like silent guardians of history on the banks of the Betwa River in India. Although the historic landscape of Orchha, a tiny medieval town in central India, is dotted with stately palaces and temples, the cenotaphs have their own mausoleum charm.
A total of 14 funerary monuments were built to perpetuate the rulers of the Bundelhand dynasty. From the early 16th to the late 18th century, Orchha, the capital of the Bundel kingdom, remained a theater of war between the Bundel Rajput leaders and the Mughal imperial rule in Delhi. However, the architectural style of Bundela is a harmonious fusion of Mughal and Rajput influences, reflected in the Orchhi cenotaphs.
The cenotaphs were built on raised platforms and designed in the form of tall, square buildings with a domed pavilion at the top called Chatri. A common feature of most Indian architectural styles is the umbrella-like domed roof type. Since the Hindus cremate the remains of the dead, the cenotaphs themselves are empty inside, but the Chatras eventually became the habitation of an endangered vulture colony.
Sitting like gargoyles on the spiers of cenotaphs and blending into the dark, rain-stained walls of these time-worn buildings, the presence of vultures adds to the eerie landscape.
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They can be seen either sitting on rooftops or hovering high in the sky and casting long shadows on the ground. As the number of vultures in India is declining at an alarming rate, the cenotaph complex has become the focus of intensive efforts by local authorities to conserve the population of these rare birds.
The main reason for the sharp decline in the population of pests that feed on vultures is diclofenac, a livestock drug that is currently banned in India. Diclofenac causes renal failure in birds when they consume animal carcasses with traces of the drug. Therefore, local authorities must constantly monitor vulture colonies for any outward signs of illness or sudden death.
The fact that vultures are slow breeders, laying one egg per breeding cycle, further slows down the challenge of increasing their numbers.