Indian vultures may be gone in 10 years

Despite a 2006 ban on veterinary diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug for cattle, vultures are fast vanishing from India. So quick is the decline in numbers that experts say three species could be extinct in less than 10 years.

The oriental white-backed vulture, once thought to be the commonest bird of prey in the world, has lost 99.9% of its population since 1992, according to a study by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). This makes it the fastest declining wild bird in history, a demise more rapid than that of the dodo. Numbers of long-billed and slender-billed vultures have together fallen by almost 97% in the same period.

Scientists say this is because diclofenac, which causes kidney failure in these birds, is still in use in the country.