Jatayu Conservation and Breeding Centre (JCBC)

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Jatayu Conservation and Breeding Centre- Relevance for UPSC Exam

GS Paper 3: Environment- Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation.

Last year, eight Oriental white-backed cultures were released into the wild for the first time in India from the Jatayu Conservation and Breeding Centre (JCBC).
A year later, they have blended well into the untamed habitat outside the aviary, offering hope to conservationists.

About Jatayu Conservation and Breeding Centre: It is the first Vulture breeding facility in Asia, established in the year 2001.
Location: It is situated within BirShikargah Wildlife in the town of Pinjore of Panchkula district, Haryana.
Purpose: It was established for the breeding and conservation of Indian vultures and House sparrows.
Implementing Organizations: JCBC is run by the Forests Department, Haryana and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) with the help of the British charity Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).
Jatayu Conservation and Breeding Centre hosts and work towards breeding four environmentally threatened species. Their respective threatened status in the IUCN red data book is as follows–
- Indian vulture (also known as long-billed Vultures)- Critically Endangered
- Slender-billed vultures- Critically Endangered
- Himalayan Vultures (also known as Himalayan griffon vultures) – Near Threatened
- Oriental white-backed vultures– Critically Endangered

Habitation: India is home to nine species of vultures (including the above four) and most of them face the threat of extinction. Other five species of vultures and their IUCN threatened status-
- Egyptian Vultures- Endangered
- Red-Headed Vultures– Critically Endangered
- Indian Griffon Vultures- Least Concerned
- Cinereous Vultures- Near Threatened
- Bearded Vultures or Lammergeier- Near Threatened
Drastic decline: Populations of three species of vultures (Indian, Slender-billed and White-backed vultures) have declined by over 97% since the 1990s.
- In the same period, the population of the Oriental white-backed vultures declined by a drastic 99.9%.
Main Cause for the drastic decline: It has been established by various studies that the vulture population was decimated by the veterinary usage of Diclofenac in India.