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In a paper, published in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, they say "the oriental white-backed vulture is now in dire straits with only one thousandth of the 1992 population remaining".
"All three species could be down to a few hundred birds or less across the whole country and thus functionally extinct in less than a decade…It is imperative that [diclofenac] is removed completely from use in livestock without any further delay to avoid the extinction of the three vulture species," they add.
The scientists believe that numbers of oriental white-backed vultures in India could now be down to 11,000 from tens of millions in the 1980s. Populations of long-billed and slender-billed vultures have dropped to around 45,000 and 1,000 birds respectively. Vulture numbers may be even lower than the authors estimate because many of the sites used for their study were in or near protected areas where populations are higher than the average.
The lead author, Dr Vibhu Prakash, of the Bombay Natural History Society, said "Efforts must be redoubled to remove diclofenac from the vultures' food supply and to protect and breed a viable population in captivity."
Co-author, Dr Andrew Cunningham of the Zoological Society of London, added, "These survey results show that imminent extinction looms for at least three species of vulture in India. Captive breeding is their last hope, so we are delighted that one of these species, the Oriental white-backed vulture, has successfully been bred this year in one of the Bombay Natural History Society's three captive breeding centres."
Co-author, Dr Richard Cuthbert of the RSPB, said "Time has almost run out to prevent the extinction of vultures in the wild in India. The ban on diclofenac manufacture was a good start but a ban on the sale and use of diclofenac and other drugs known to harm vultures is now vital."
Banning the retail sale and use of the veterinary drug diclofenac and taking more of the remaining wild birds into captive breeding centres is the only way to save the birds. Manufacture of the veterinary form of the drug, as an anti-inflammatory treatment for livestock, was outlawed in India in 2006, but it remains widely available. Furthermore, diclofenac formulated for humans is being used to treat livestock.
The full version of the paper is available at this link
This news is also reported on the Bombay Natural History Society, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Zoological Society of London and BirdLife International websites (follow links).
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