According to a census, by 2007, only 11,000 oriental white-backed vultures were left in the wild. Genetic diversity within a population plays an important role in the survival and adaptability of a species. When diversity dwindles, the species becomes vulnerable to extinction.

Vultures in genetic bottleneck as vulture population declines in south Asia, scientists have warned of a possible risk. The oriental white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis), classified critically endangered by the iucn, may soon lose its genetic diversity unless immediate measures are taken. The bird was numbered tens of millions in India, Nepal and Pakistan until the mid-1990s,

Teena Thacker

New Delhi, September 2: The Government has issued strict restrictions on the sale of drug diclofenac, used to treat animals, after evidence emerged that the drug indirectly caused the death of vultures that fed on the carcasses of these animals.

Dead Ranthambore tigress

Faint Flappings Of the 78 endangered bird species in India, 13 are at extreme risk. * 1) Himalayan Quail

AGARTALA

The world's most proficient scavenger could face extinction within 10 years if urgent action is not taken, warns Emily Dugan Breeding programmes in captivity house fewer than 200 vultures. Breeding programmes in captivity house fewer than 200 vultures.

Several species of Asian vulture are being wiped out faster than the dodo because they are eating carcasses of livestock that have been treated with a veterinary drug which to them is highly toxic. According to conservationists, the birds can only be saved by banning the use of anti-inflammatory diclofenac and setting up a network of captive breeding centres. While the demise of vultures may not tug on the heart strings in the same way as the decline of a host of cuter creatures, they play a vital role in the Asian eco-system.

Indian vultures in the wild could be extinct within a decade in the absence of measures to check the retail sale of diclofenac, the livestock drug that triggered their decline, a new study has warned. BirdLife International, a global partnership of conservation organisations, quotes the study published in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society to drive home the point that the drug continues to kill vultures, after entering its food chain, despite a ban put in place in 2006 on its manufacture.

Three resident Gyps species of vultures