India’s Vultures Soar Back from the Brink in Landmark Conservation Success

Two decades after toxic veterinary drugs pushed India’s vultures to the brink of extinction, the country is witnessing a remarkable recovery of the critically endangered birds, marking what conservationists describe as one of India’s biggest wildlife conservation success stories .

The revival programme, led by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) in partnership with state governments and international conservation organisations, has bred more than 700 vultures in captivity and released over 100 birds into the wild through carefully monitored reintroduction initiatives.

The programme focuses on three critically endangered species: the white-rumped, long-billed and slender-billed vultures whose populations collapsed in the late 1990s due to the widespread use of the veterinary drug diclofenac . Research by BNHS linked the drug to mass vulture deaths, prompting its ban in 2006 and subsequent restrictions on other harmful anti-inflammatory drugs.

Four Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centres established across Haryana, West Bengal, Assam and Madhya Pradesh now house around 740 vultures . The facilities have become the backbone of India’s efforts to restore the species in the wild.

Tiger reserves such as Pench, Tadoba-Andhari and Melghat in Maharashtra, along with the Kaziranga landscape in Assam, have emerged as key release sites due to their large protected habitats and availability of safe natural food sources. GPS tracking has shown encouraging results, including a long-billed vulture travelling nearly 750 kilometres after release.

Conservationists say the recovery has reached a crucial phase, with captive-bred vultures released in Haryana already breeding naturally in the wild . Citizen-science surveys have also recorded rising vulture numbers in several protected areas.

Experts caution that sustained success will depend on eliminating harmful veterinary drugs and ensuring safe food sources beyond protected areas. Nevertheless, the ongoing revival offers a rare and inspiring example of how science-driven conservation can bring a species back from the edge of extinction.