Sambhar Lake sits in the Thar Desert about 80 kilometres southwest of Jaipur, and for migratory waterbirds it has been a reliable stopover for centuries. In November 2019, that changed. Within days, carcasses of flamingos, northern pintails, common teals, and ruddy shelducks began washing ashore in numbers that alarmed forest department staff and birders alike. Final estimates placed the death toll at between 18,000 and 20,000 birds across dozens of species. The investigation that followed drew in the Wildlife Institute of India, the Bombay Natural History Society, and state veterinary laboratories, and it produced a clear answer: avian botulism caused by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum type C.
