News
The Assam Forest Department and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) released ten captive-bred vultures into the wild on 7 August 2026. The birds — five Slender-billed Vultures and five White-rumped Vultures — were released from the Jatayu Soft Release Centre at Tewaripal, in the Biswanath Wildlife Division bordering Kaziranga National Park, Assam. The vultures were set free using the scientific "Soft Release" method, after acclimatising for about three months in a release aviary. This marked the first-ever release of captive-bred Slender-billed Vultures into the wild anywhere in the world.
About Vulture Conservation in India
- Population Collapse: Populations of India's resident vulture species — Slender-billed, White-rumped, and Indian (Long-billed) — collapsed by nearly 99% between the 1990s and 2000s.
- Cause: The crash was driven by poisoning from Diclofenac, a veterinary painkiller lethal to vultures that feed on carcasses of treated cattle; India banned its veterinary use in 2006.
- Recovery Method: BNHS and state forest departments run dedicated Vulture Conservation Breeding Centres to build an insurance population, releasing birds back into the wild through "soft release" — acclimatising them in a protected aviary near the release site before setting them free — which improves survival odds over direct "hard release."
Source: Sentinel Assam