The nomadic nature of steppe eagles in winter can make accurate counts of the species in that season difficult. However, the species is still considered relatively frequent during winter in Pakistan. Declines from migrating and wintering areas appear to be generally poorly documented. There is concern that landfills function as ecological traps for these species, due to poisoning being frequent and powerlines frequently a present threat. From the years 1882 to 2013, an estimated 76,879 steppes were recorded in 9 countries in Indian subcontinent, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, Myanmar and Bangladesh, often gathering around garbage and carrion dumps. They may be even locally increasing somewhat in number in locales in India such as Kerala, possibly concentrated more so due to less competition from vultures. However, toxic levels of diclofenac were found in two dead steppe eagles at the cattle carcass dump in Rajasthan. A paper based on joint research conducted by the Bombay Natural History Society, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Indian Veterinary Research Institute, published in May 2014 in the journal of the Cambridge University Press, highlighted that steppe eagles are adversely affected by diclofenac and may fall prey to veterinary use of it. The research found the same signs of kidney failure as seen in the Gyps vulture killed due to diclofenac. They found extensive visceral gout, lesions and uric acid deposits in the liver, kidney and spleen, as well as deposits of diclofenac residue in tissues. Steppe eagles are opportunistic scavengers, which may expose them to the risk of diclofenac poisoning. Declines have pronounced in passage at Eilat, Israel, where the number of steppe eagle juveniles to adult has dropped 30% from the early 1980s and by 1.4% by 2000; all record low annual numbers in migration there have been subsequent to the 1990s. However, lower numbers in Eilat may be due in part to increasingly large portions of the steppe eagle population now wintering in Arabia rather than Africa. Persecution of raptors in Eilat appears to be still quite prevalent, with steppe eagles accounting for 9.1% of 77 raptors that were found killed by poachers (often appeared to been wrapped in rope and sometimes mutilated), doing so apparently largely out of superstition. Some population declines of migrants in Israel may too have depleted as well by the Chernobyl disaster. Israeli biologist have strongly advocated that stricter protection be undertaken and a conserved greenbelt be instituted to accommodate the steppe eagle and other raptors in passage. The similar numbers seen in passage exiting Africa in spring as those entering in autumn indicate that mortality for the species is not high in that continent. Persecution through shooting likely continues to be of determent to steppe eagles migrating or wintering in the countries of Georgia, Armenia, Iraq and Jordan, with the eagles being relatively vulnerable due to their sluggish, unwary demeanor and, in Iraq, along with many raptors end up being offered at local markets. In Saudi Arabia, the turnover to more intensive farming activity has depleted to available habitat usable for steppe eagles. In Saudi Arabia as well as Iraq and Armenia, other conservation concerns are similar as elsewhere, including dangerous powerlines and potential poisonings.