Growing up in Kanpur in northern India, I remember seeing hundreds of long-necked vultures perched on tall trees in many parts of the city. Kanpur is known for the processing hides for leather industry and the birds had plenty of food pecking off the carcasses.
Old world vultures (which are different family from those found in the Americas) find carcasses exclusively by sight. Although feeding largely on meat,as opposed to insects and small reptiles, vultures do not generally kill their own prey. They form a useful function in controlling disease in urban and rural areas in many parts of the world.
But 97% of the vultures in India have vanished in the last 20 years! The livestock painkiller Diclofenac, consumed by vultures when they eat a carcass, has been blamed for the fall. The birds succumb to kidney failure and visceral gout when they eat a dead animal.
After many years of struggles, breeding programs in captivity are starting to become successful. For the first time in India, four eggs of the long-billed vulture, India’s most endangered bird, were artificially incubated successfully by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) at its three vulture breeding centers. Over the past six years, scientists in India have managed to successfully breed two other varieties. But this is the first successful attempt for the long-billed vulture.
“Soon we will see the comeback of the vulture,’ India’s Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh said, replying supplementary questions in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of Parliament in India.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
