Air Force Doctor Captures All 9 of India's Rare Vultures

When Ishan Pathak watched over 100 vultures from four different species gather around a single carcass in Jaisalmer, he knew he was witnessing something most people would never see again.

The 37-year-old former Air Force squadron leader has spent years photographing the birds that most people fear or ignore. For him, vultures aren't symbols of doom but nature's most efficient cleanup crew, preventing disease and keeping ecosystems healthy.

Before he picked up a camera full-time, Ishan's life looked completely different. He earned his medical degree in China, completed an MD in public health, and worked as an assistant professor before joining the Indian Air Force as a medical officer.

But forests kept calling him back. Childhood visits to national parks grew into a passion for documenting wildlife, and in 2024, he retired from military service to pursue photography full-time.

India hosts nine of the world's 23 vulture species, the highest diversity anywhere on Earth. Ishan has now photographed every single one, traveling from cold desert peaks to grasslands and mountains across states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

His images don't romanticize nature. One striking photograph shows a cinereous vulture feeding on a mongoose's exposed heart in Rajasthan's desert, capturing the raw reality of how ecosystems work.

As a doctor, Ishan sees what others miss. When vultures clean a carcass within hours, they're preventing it from rotting for days, attracting feral dogs, and spreading disease to nearby villages and animals.

Why This Inspires

Ishan's journey proves that it's never too late to follow a different calling. After 15 years in medicine and military service, he chose to protect and document species that others overlook or fear.

His work challenges the myths surrounding vultures, showing them as the ecological sanitizers they truly are. States like Madhya Pradesh now record close to 13,000 individual vultures, but populations continue to decline across India.

Through his lens, Ishan is changing how people see these misunderstood birds. His images force viewers to understand that death in nature isn't ugly, it's essential to life continuing.

Every photograph he takes is a reminder that some of nature's most important workers are vanishing from our skies, and someone needs to show the world what we're losing before it's too late.