Vulture Conservation & Jatayu 'Vulture Restaurants' of Nepal

In the 1980s Nepal's skies held hundreds of thousands of vultures, and across South Asia the population ran into the tens of millions. Within about two decades most of them were gone. Surveys documented one of the fastest declines ever recorded for any bird: between 1995 and 2011 Nepal's White-rumped Vulture population fell by roughly 91% and the Slender-billed Vulture by about 96%, and several Gyps species declined by more than 90% region-wide.

The cause was eventually traced to diclofenac, a cheap non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) given to sick and working cattle. When an animal treated with diclofenac died, vultures that fed on the carcass suffered fatal kidney failure and visceral gout within days. Because dozens or hundreds of vultures share a single carcass, contamination spread catastrophically: researchers estimate a single tainted carcass can kill 350-800 birds at once.

The collapse mattered far beyond birdwatching. Vultures are nature's clean-up crew, stripping carcasses before they rot and spread disease. Their disappearance left rotting carrion in fields and near settlements, boosting feral dog numbers and the associated risk of rabies. Restoring vultures therefore became a public-health and sanitation issue as much as a wildlife one.

Nepal is home to nine of the world's vulture species, ranging from Terai lowland scavengers to high-Himalayan soarers. Four of them are classed as Critically Endangered, one as Endangered and three as Near Threatened, following the classification used in Nepal's Vulture Conservation Action Plan. Because so many species occur together, a single well-run feeding site can support most of the national assemblage at once.

The four Critically Endangered species are the ones hit hardest by diclofenac. The larger Gyps vultures nest colonially in tall trees of the Terai and Churia foothills, while the Himalayan and Eurasian griffons and the bearded vulture (lammergeier) range across the mountains. The Eurasian Griffon is largely a winter visitor to Nepal.

The idea of a 'vulture restaurant' is simple: give vultures a reliable supply of poison-free food so they stop eating contaminated carcasses in the wider landscape. Nepal turned that idea into the world's first community-managed vulture restaurant in 2006 (Bikram Sambat 2063) at Pithauli, in what is now Nawalpur (East Nawalparasi) district, on the fringe of Chitwan National Park. It was set up by local conservationist Dhan Bahadur Chaudhary with support from Bird Conservation Nepal.

The site was named 'Jatayu' after the noble vulture-king of the Hindu epic Ramayana, who is killed trying to rescue Sita from Ravana. The word 'restaurant' was chosen deliberately to intrigue young people and reframe vultures as valued guests rather than grim omens. The branding worked: Jatayu became a model copied across Nepal and beyond, and helped shift local attitudes toward a bird long treated with suspicion.

Jatayu is run by a community forest user group, so villagers who once saw vultures as ill fortune now earn income and pride from protecting them. Over the years the restaurant grew into a hub for monitoring, research and eco-tourism, with nesting numbers at the site reported to have more than doubled and local conservationists describing several-fold increases in birds using the feeding ground.

A vulture restaurant is not a random dumping ground for dead animals; it is a carefully managed safe-food system. Community groups buy old, unproductive or injured cattle from nearby farmers and keep them in a holding pen. Crucially, the animals are held drug-free for a quarantine period so that any diclofenac or other toxic NSAID has cleared their system before they die naturally and their carcasses are placed in the feeding enclosure.

Trained local caretakers manage the feeding site, record which species and how many birds arrive, and maintain hides for researchers and visitors. The same infrastructure supports satellite-tagging studies, nest monitoring and awareness programmes for surrounding villages, turning each restaurant into a small conservation station.

Feeding sites alone could not save vultures while poison remained in the wider food chain. In 2006 the Government of Nepal banned the manufacture, import, sale and veterinary use of diclofenac, the same year India and Pakistan acted against the drug. Campaigners then promoted meloxicam, an NSAID that treats livestock effectively but is rapidly broken down and is safe for vultures; tolfenamic acid is another vulture-safe option now in use.

To back the ban with a landscape approach, Nepal pioneered the Vulture Safe Zone (VSZ) concept in South Asia, formally launched in the western Terai lowlands around 2009 and built on advocacy begun in 2006. A Vulture Safe Zone is a large area, typically defined around vulture colonies, where pharmacies, vets and farmers are mobilised to keep diclofenac and other toxic drugs out of the cattle supply. The network gradually expanded across the western Terai and mid-hills, and the same model has since spread to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

By pairing enforcement with education and safe-food sites, Nepal is widely cited as being effectively diclofenac-free in the veterinary market, and is frequently described by international bodies such as the SAVE (Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction) partnership as a model for the region.

Because wild numbers had fallen so low, Nepal also built an insurance population in captivity. A Vulture Conservation and Breeding Centre was established at Kasara in Chitwan in 2008, run by the National Trust for Nature Conservation with Bird Conservation Nepal, focusing on the White-rumped and Slender-billed vultures.

The programme reached its milestone phase in 2017-2018. In November 2017 the first captive-reared White-rumped Vultures were released, some fitted with satellite tags to track survival. On 17 September 2018, twelve White-rumped Vultures were released at Pithauli in Nawalparasi, including the first birds actually hatched inside the Nepali breeding centre — among the first Asian vultures bred in captivity and returned to the wild.

As wild colonies stabilised, the strategy shifted toward the community sites. The Chitwan breeding facility wound down and its remaining vultures were moved to the Jatayu restaurant area, tying the captive-breeding legacy directly into the community model that started the recovery.

The combined effort has produced Asia's clearest vulture success story. Studies report a partial recovery of Critically Endangered Gyps populations in Nepal, and gatherings unseen for decades have returned: in early 2023 conservationists counted about 465 vultures of eight species at a single feeding ground in the Kawasoti area of East Nawalparasi, described as the largest such congregation in years. Nesting colonies that had nearly vanished are once again active.

The restaurants have also become a genuine eco-tourism attraction. Visitors come to watch dozens of vultures descend on a carcass from purpose-built hides, and searches for 'vulture restaurant Nepal' and 'Jatayu restaurant' reflect steady interest from wildlife tourists and photographers. Revenue and jobs give surrounding communities a direct stake in keeping the birds alive.

The recovery remains fragile. Diclofenac has largely been replaced, but other vulture-toxic NSAIDs such as aceclofenac, ketoprofen and nimesulide are still sold, and threats from electrocution on power lines, deliberate and accidental poisoning, food shortages and habitat loss persist. Conservationists stress that Vulture Safe Zones, safe-drug enforcement and the network of vulture restaurants must be sustained for the gains to hold.

From the flagship at Pithauli, the safe-feeding model spread to several districts, with roughly half a dozen community vulture restaurants and feeding sites established between 2006 and the 2010s across the Terai and hills. Each supports nearby colonies and anchors a local Vulture Safe Zone. Exact operational status varies year to year, so the list below is indicative of the best-known sites.