In Pics: What Brought Back 700+ Critically Endangered Vultures From the Brink
21 October 2025
21 October 2025
Vultures have long stood the test of time as nature’s most efficient scavengers.
By the mid-1990s, India’s vulture population — once nearly 50 million strong — had crashed to the brink of extinction.
The culprit was the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac.
In 2006, the Government of India banned the veterinary use of diclofenac. Along with this, vulture captive breeding programmes were started to establish vulture-safe zones.
These have been largely successful.
Four of the nine vulture species found in India are critically endangered and face the risk of extinction.
These are the white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis), long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus), slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris), and red-headed vulture (Sarcogyps calvus).
Here’s a look at these vulture species in pictures:
White-rumped vultures were the most severely affected by diclofenac poisoning.
Through the vulture conservation breeding programme, a total of 382 white-rumped vultures have been successfully bred in captivity across centres across India.
Long-billed vultures are widely distributed across central, northwest, and southern India.
Around 290 of these have been bred in captivity through the vulture conservation breeding programme.
Slender-billed vultures have a limited distribution along the Himalayan foothills and in Northeast India.
They too have been successfully bred — 112 vultures so far — in India’s vulture conservation breeding centres.
A bare red head atop a dark, grey-black medium-sized body makes this bird stand out from other vulture species.
India’s first conservation and breeding centre for the red-headed vulture (Sarcogyps calvus) was inaugurated in Bharivaisi, Campierganj Range, in the Gorakhpur forest division.
This story is part of a content series by The Better India and Roundglass Sustain.
Read the complete story here.