EXCLUSIVE
 Slender-billed Vulture (Gyps tenuirostris)- Critically Endangered

o Egyptian Vulture (Neophronpercnopterus)- Endangered

o Cincerous Vulture (Aegypiusmonachus)- Near Threatened

o Bearded Vulture (Gypaetusbarbatus)- Near Threatened

o Himalayan Vulture (Gyps himalayansis)- Near Threatened

o Griffon Vulture (Gyps fulvus)-Least Concern

Vulture numbers have come down vastly:

 Vultures in India have reduced from 40 million (in 1990) to less than 60 thousand (2012).

 The fast disappearing population of vultures is a serious problem and there is need to protect them to ensure their survival.

Threats to Vulture survival:

 Diclofenac: According to Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) veterinary use of diclofenac as pain reliever in cattle is the main
threat to the vultures in India. Vultures feeding on the carcasses of animals recently treated with diclofenac suffer renal failure and
die..

 Habitat destruction: Developmental activities like establishment of power projects, irrigation projects, industrial units, construction
of highways etc. have ruined the habitats of vultures resulting into decline in their population.

 Pesticide pollution: The chlorinated hydrocarbon D.D.T (Dichloro Diphenyl Trichloroethane) used as pesticide enters the body of
vultures through food chain where it affects the activity of estrogen hormone, as a result of which the egg shell is weakened.
Consequently the premature hatching of egg takes place causing the death of the embryo.

 Slow breeding rate: Vultures lay a single egg in a breeding season. Hence, their slow breeding rate is also a threat to their
survival.

 Use of poisoned carcasses: Poison used by humans kill cattle-killing carnivores is also a threat to Vultures in India, as
consumption of such poisoned carcasses by vulture leads to their death.

Conservation of vultures:
 Cutting use of diclofenac for cattle: While the use of safe veterinary drugs is continuously advocated, carcass sampling is
undertaken across the country to monitor for the presence of diclofenac. There is need to evolve an effective substitute of
diclofenac, and the present available substitute meloxicam needs to be subsidized. 

 Captive Breeding Centers:

o The Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre (JCBC) established at Pinjore in 2001 was the first Vulture Care Centre (VCC) in the
country.

o VCCs were later upgraded to Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centres (VCBC).

o At present there are nine VCBCs in India, of which three are directly administered by Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).

o The three species of vultures bred in the VCBC are the White-backed, Long-billed and the Slender-billed vultures.

 Upgradation in status of protection: Protection status of White backed, Long Billed and Slender Billed Vultures has been
upgraded from Schedule IV to Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.

 Vulture safe zones: Eight vulture safe zones were set up, which are diclofenacfree areas with a radius of 100 km and at least one
nesting colony.

 
 Environment & Ecology