Environment › Species in news
Vultures
India's vultures are in the slowest kind of recovery. Three Gyps species, the White-rumped, the Long-billed and the Slender-billed, are Critically Endangered after diclofenac in cattle carcasses killed them at scale, and the drug has been out of veterinary use since 2006. Birds are now bred at the Jatayu centre at Pinjore in Haryana, to be released into country kept clear of such drugs.
India's vultures
- The vultures hit hardest in India are the three Gyps species, the White-rumped, the Long-billed and the Slender-billed.
- All three are Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
- The Red-headed vulture is also Critically Endangered, and the Egyptian vulture is Endangered.
- They are listed in Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the Act's strictest protection.
- They nest on cliffs and on trees across India's plains and peninsula.
- Diclofenac in the carcasses of treated cattle causes kidney failure in Gyps vultures, and is why the three are where they are.
- The Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre at Pinjore in Haryana breeds all three with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
The drugs, and the country outside the centre
- Veterinary diclofenac was banned in 2006, and aceclofenac and ketoprofen followed in 2023.
- Vulture Safe Zones keep such drugs out of an area, so that a bird released there does not meet them again.
What has happened
6 Sep 2026
International Vulture Awareness Day was marked at Panchkula, beside the Pinjore centre, where the Union Environment Minister opened a national workshop on India's vultures.
- Its theme, From Crisis to Recovery, is the pairing the recovery needs: birds bred in captivity, and country they can be released into.