Which species are affected?

Asad Rahmani/BNHS An Indian Vulture Gyps indicus at its nest Zoom In

The Slender-billed Vulture Gyps tenuirostris and the Indian Vulture G. indicus were common until recently in the Indian parts of their ranges, and Slender-billed was also common in Nepal. The White-rumped Vulture G. bengalensis disappeared from most of southeast Asia in the early 20th Century, for unknown reasons, but retained strongholds in India and Pakistan.

Prior to this decline, White-rumped Vulture was considered to be one of the commonest large birds of prey in the world. But by 1996, White-rumped Vulture numbers had crashed in their former strongholds, and by mid-2000, Gyps vultures were being found dead and dying in Nepal, Pakistan and throughout India, and major declines and local extirpations were being reported.

Slender-billed and Indian Vulture were formerly treated as subspecies of Gyps indicus (G.i.indicus and G.i.tenuirostris) until Rasmussen and Parry established that they should be treated as distinct species in a scientific paper published in 2000. They were treated as separate species in BirdLife's Threatened Birds of Asia (2001), and were listed separately on the IUCN Red Data List in 2002.