Isolated aviaries help to populate three out of the nine endangered species

Vultures are brought into captivity at any one of the three vulture breeding centres in India — namely, Pinjore opened in 2001; Buxa Tiger Reserve in West Bengal opened in 2005; and Rani Forest in Assam opened in 2007 — to be released later when sizeable populations have been built up and suitable places for their release identified.

Ninety per cent of vulture mortalities in the wild occur during the nestling stage and so nestlings are brought to the breeding centres at this time.

Vultures have a lifespan of about 40 years and begin to breed at six, with females laying an egg a year.

A female will usually lay an egg after 15 days if she finds her nest empty, another vital strategy used at the centres to double the vulture nestlings every year.

It’s called double clutching and windows are placed by the jute-padded cots to steal the eggs and put them in incubators — another first for Pinjore where the machines take the place of the real mother.

Out of India’s nine species of vultures, three of the most endangered species are bred at the centres: the White-backed (Gyps bagalensis), the Long-billed (Gyps indicus) and the Slender-billed (Gyps tenuirostires).

In 2007, the first ever hatching of two White-backed vulture nestlings in captivity was recorded at Pinjore.

Another species, the Slender-billed vulture, once common in colonies of up to 200 in the 1980s, is perhaps the most endangered vulture in the world, with an estimated 200 pairs surviving in the wild.

Any vulture colony today ranging between five and 15 is thought of as fairly sizeable.

Fifty is an extraordinarily good number but rare.

If l had expected to see flocks of vultures everywhere at the centre, I was in for a surprise.

Save for a rare visit from the vulture caretakers, the birds are kept in isolated vulture aviaries and every movement captured live on screen by CCTV cameras fitted in the aviaries.

“We don’t want them to become used to humans,” Nikita explains. “When we release them, we want them to be wary of humans.” It’s a survival strategy and guests are not taken to the aviaries because besides not wanting them to get used to humans, the birds are very nervous to the extent of throwing up or injuring themselves if they detect any disturbance outside.

Vultures are social birds,” continues Nikita. “They have no hierarchy. They simply breed, roost and feed together.”

The close circuit TVs shows the three vulture aviaries on one screen.