After years of grit and determination, eight critically endangered white-rumped vultures, six of them captive-bred, were reintroduced into the wild on Thursday for the first time in India since the vulture conservation and breeding centre was set up in the lower Shivaliks near here in September 2001.

For biologists, the release of the vultures is a landmark occasion after January 2007 when the first white-rumped chick was born in captivity in the centre.