page_title: Indian vulture crisis
section_title: Reaction
hierarchical_section_title: Indian vulture crisis / Reaction
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Diclofenac uttarakhand
context_page_description: Nine species of vulture can be found living in India, but most are now in danger of extinction after a rapid and major population collapse in recent decades. As recently as the 1980s there were up to 80 million white-rumped vultures in India, but today the population numbers only several thousand.
  Population of three Gyps vultures in South Asia decreased by about 95% in the 1990s. A major contributing factor in declining populations of vultures is believed to be widespread use of drugs such as diclofenac, once commonly used as a livestock anti-inflammatory drug. Usage of diclofenac is banned in India. The IUCN Red Data Book has listed Gyps bengalensis as "critically endangered". In winter 2012, 56 vultures in three species and 10 steppe eagles were found dead at Jorbeer dumping site. Six Eurasian griffons were found dead in May 2013 due to dehydration and wing weakness. The area has been declared as a conserved forest area, but the dead animal dumping site is not part of the protected area.
  The dramatic vulture decline observed across India presents a range of ecological threats, by influencing the numbers and distribution of other scavenging species.
context_section_description: Following the findings on diclofenac, the drug was banned for veterinary use in India on March 11, 2006; Nepal followed suit in August, 2006, and Pakistan shortly thereafter. A replacement drug was quickly developed and proposed after tests on vultures in captivity: meloxicam. Meloxicam affects cattle the same way as diclofenac, but is harmless for vultures. Diclofenac for human use was still being diverted into veterinary uses through black markets in certain parts of India as of 2009.
  Despite the vulture crisis, diclofenac remains available in other countries including many in Europe. It was controversially approved for veterinary use in Spain in 2013 and continues to be available, despite Spain being home to around 90% of the European vulture population and an independent simulation showing that the drug could reduce the population of vultures by 1–8% annually. Spain's medicine agency presented simulations suggesting that the number of deaths would be quite small.  New sanitary regulation laws regarding animal carcass disposal in Spain also reduce the amount of available food for vultures while adding to costs and greenhouse emissions.
caption: Diclofenac bought in 2009
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