2019 – Posted in: Daily News

Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centres

For: Mains

Topics covered:

The number of vultures in the country declined from 40 million in the 80s to a few thousand by 2009.

To study the cause of deaths of vultures, a Vulture Care Centre (VCC) was set up at Pinjore, Haryana.
At present, there are nine Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centres (VCBC) in India.

The total number of vultures in these Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centres (VCBCs) is more than 700.
The three species of vultures bred in the VCBC are the White-backed, Long-billed and the Slender-billed vulture.

The major reason behind the vulture population getting nearly wiped out was the drug Diclofenac, found in the carcass of cattle the vultures fed on.
The drug, whose veterinary use was banned in 2008, was commonly administered to cattle to treat inflammation.

It is a joint project of the Haryana Forest Department and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
It is a collaborative initiative to save the three species of vultures, the White-backed, Long-billed and Slender-billed, from looming extinction.
The VCBC, earlier known as Vulture Care Centre (VCC), was established in September 2001 with the UK Government’s ‘Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species’ fund, to investigate the dramatic declines in India’s Gyps species of vultures.
To study the cause of deaths of vultures, a Vulture Care Centre (VCC) was set up at Pinjore, Haryana in 2004.

The first objective of the VCBC was to produce a few hundred pairs of each of the three species of the endangered vultures.

Important Information

vultures are slow-breeding birds.
Vultures have wide, strong wings. They can glide in the air for hours looking for a meal.
Vultures live in every part of the world except Australia and Antarctica.