he Vulture Conservation Breeding Centre (VCBC) 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.

• Subsequent to the release of the South Asia Vulture Recovery Plan in February 2004, the Vulture Care Centre was adapted and upgraded to being the first JCBC, in line with a key recommendation of the Recovery Plan to set up a conservation breeding programme for the three critically endangered Gyps species of vultures.
• Diclofenac implicated as the main cause of vulture decline
• The centre played an important role in confirming that diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, given to cattle to treat pain and inflammation, was the main cause of vulture mortality and population crash in vultures.

The following are the important steps taken by Government for protection of Vultures in the country:

• Protection status of White backed, Long Billed and Slender Billed Vultures has been upgraded from Schedule IV to Schedule I of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
• Bombay Natural History Society in collaboration with the Haryana State Forest Department has taken up a project on conservation breeding of vultures. A ‗Vulture Captive Care facility has been established at Panchkula.
• Government of India has formulated a National Action Plan (2006) on Vulture Conservation. The Action Plan provides for strategies, actions for containing the decline of vulture population through ex-situ, in-situ vulture conservation.
• Captive breeding centres at Zoos at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Junagarh and Hyderabad have also been set up through Central Zoo Authority.
• Ramadevarabetta vulture sanctuary is the only vulture sanctuary in India, located in Karnataka.

Source: The Hindu