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According to the BNHS, 99 per cent population of the bird has declined at the rate of around 50 per cent every year.
"At present there are only 11,000 vultures remaining in India. If it continues to decline at this rate, then only around 6,000 vultures will be left and finally they may become extinct," Arshad Rehmani, director of BNHS, said.
He said the decline is alarming as it is taking place despite government banning the veterinary drug Diclofenac, which is given as a treatment to cattle.
Rehmani said the main reason for the death of vultures is the birds feeding on dead cattle, who have been given Diclofenac.
So, if cattle die and the flesh is eaten by these birds, they die too.
Nine species of vultures have been identified in the Indian subcontinent, among which three Gyps species – Oriental White-rumped Vulture, Long-billed Vulture and Slender-billed Vulture – declined during the mid-90s, according to a recent paper prepared by BNHS.
The three species of vultures continue to decline at an alarming rate. The number of Oriental White-rumped vulture declined by 99.9 per cent between 1992 and 2007. The equivalent decline in the combined total of Long-billed and Slender-billed vultures was 96.8 per cent, as per the survey conducted.
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The vultures in the Indian sky are missing and the declination is too fast. The scientist and environmentalists apprehend that after Pakistan and Nepal the vulture population of India has been declined by more than 97% in the last few years.There were about 40 million vultures in early Eighties in India , but a survey conducted by Bombay Natural History Society in 2007 revealed that there remained nearly 11,000 white-backed vultures, 1000 slender-billed vultures and 44,000 long-billed vultures in the country.Among the nine species of vultures available in India, the white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures are recognized as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. More over, they are listed as Schedule I species in the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which is applicable to the tiger and one-horned rhino also. Rapid urbanization, destruction of habitat (primarily the loss of high-rise trees, where the vultures go for n