Nepalese villagers carry a dead cow..

WILDLIFE by Deepesh SHRESTHA In this picture taken 16 September 2007, Nepalese villagers carry a dead cow towards a vulture feeding site in the Pithauli village of the Nawalparasi district, 120 kilometres (75 miles) southwest of Kathmandu. With their beady eyes, sharp talons and relentless search for the dying or the dead, vultures are not regular staple in conservationist fund raising literature. But a scheme in Nepal to create a "restaurant" for the birds -- whose numbers have been decimated by a powerful painkiller given to livestock they ingest if the animals die -- is slowly helping the bird population recover and changing perception of the much-reviled scavenger in the Himalayan nation. A decade ago, an estimated 300,000 of the carrion feeders cruised the skies above Nepal, but today only around 1,000 birds remain