The population of Oriental White-Backed vulture "appears to have stabilized after years of decline,” states Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) deputy director Vibhu Prakash. Calling for "more regulatory actions” on vulture-toxic drugs, Deepak Apte BNHS 
director was quoted in the Hindustan Times (HT) of December 22, 2017 that "the vulture crisis in India is far from over.” Both officials were referring to a study conducted by the BNHS and supported by UK-based Royal Society for Protection of Birds. The results of the study were published in the journal Bird Conservation International on December 20.
Lead author of the published study and head of BNHS’s Vulture Conservation Breeding Program, Prakash told HT that "for the rarest of the three Gyps (a genus) species, the long-billed vulture (pictured), numbers counted are now too small to estimate a reliable trend... (Veterinary drug) diclofenac (that is given to animals that the scavengers feed on) is only one of over a dozen drugs” that could be harmful to vultures, adding that acelofenac, carprofen, flunixin and ketoprofen are also toxic for the birds.
"There has been a 73% drop in the population of long-billed vultures in the country between 2007 and 2015,” notes the study. "Along with the slender-billed vulture, India’s resident species of vultures which numbered in millions, are now critically endangered,” noted the HT report.