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International Vulture Awareness Day 2026 was marked at Panchkula, Haryana, where the Union Environment Minister inaugurated a national workshop themed 'From Crisis to Recovery — Conserving India's Vultures'.
The workshop was organised by MoEFCC with the Central Zoo Authority, the Haryana Forest and Wildlife Department, the Bombay Natural History Society and the Jatayu Conservation Breeding Centre, Pinjore.
During 2025-26 the Pinjore centre housed 356 vultures, bred 35 chicks, released or contributed 87 birds for reintroduction, transferred 90 to other breeding institutions and trained 1,222 participants from 22 institutions.
The stated policy direction is continued creation of Vulture Safe Zones through vulture-safe veterinary practice, safe food availability and technical capacity for species recovery in the wild.
A large landscape — typically a radius of about 100 km around a wild vulture colony or release site — in which toxic veterinary painkillers are eliminated from the cattle carcass supply through pharmacy surveys, veterinary outreach and carcass monitoring, so released birds survive.
Simple Analogy: A cleared minefield around a nest, not a fence around it.
One of India's largest conservation NGOs; runs the vulture conservation breeding programme jointly with State forest departments and is a member of the SAVE consortium. Founded 15 September 1883.
Statutory body constituted in 1992 under Section 38A of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972; recognises and regulates zoos and coordinates conservation-breeding programmes, including for vultures.
Asia's first vulture breeding facility, begun as the Vulture Care Centre in September 2001 near Bir Shikargaha, Haryana; a joint project of the Haryana Forest Department and BNHS breeding White-rumped, Long-billed and Slender-billed Vultures through scientific husbandry, artificial incubation and genetic management.
International consortium formed in 2011 to coordinate South Asian vulture recovery — drug bans, safe-zone certification and captive breeding — across India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The Minister placed vultures alongside Big Cats, Sloth Bear, Great Indian Bustard, dolphins, gharial and wild water buffalo as an ecosystem-oriented rather than single-species approach.
The vulture crash is the classic case of a veterinary drug decision producing a wildlife collapse, which is why the response runs through pharmacies and livestock owners rather than only through forest departments.
Grew out of a 2006 initiative by the Endangered Wildlife Trust's Birds of Prey Programme in South Africa and the Hawk Conservancy Trust in England, and is now observed on the first Saturday of September.
GS Paper 3 > Environment > Conservation and Biodiversity
General Awareness > Environment and Static GK
With reference to Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), consider the following statements: 1. It is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Environment and Forests. 2. It strives to conserve nature through action-based research, education and public awareness. 3. It organizes and conducts nature trails and camps for the general public. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Answer: 2 and 3 only
An animal that feeds almost entirely on carrion rather than hunting live prey — the ecological niche vultures occupy.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug; the class that includes diclofenac, aceclofenac, ketoprofen and nimesulide.
Managed captive breeding with genetic and veterinary oversight aimed at eventual release into the wild, as at JCBC Pinjore.