This could not have received the attention had it not been for actor Salman Khan, involved in the case of Blackbuck hunting since 1998. Once hunted indiscriminately to the point that they were fast becoming an extinct species, blacks are now conserved more, especially in Indian states like Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Haryana.
A last-ditch attempt to restore the blackbuck population was undertaken through a conservation project at Balukhand Sanctuary with the help of the Puri Forest Department last year but even under controlled conditions, the project will have to crawl slowly as another nine blackbucks have died between November and December 2024.
Although it is difficult to determine the precise cause of the deaths of the blackbucks, the carcasses have now been sent to the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) in Bhubaneswar for post-mortem examination. Environmentalists suspect that the problem is the result of poor housing conditions, mismanagement, and inexperience of both the staff and the administration.
Settlement of Blackbuck in a Protected Sanctuary
The move commenced on June 18, 2024, when the Forest Department translocated 10 blackbucks, six female and four male, from Nandankanan to be settled on the Konark Balukhand forest. For their acclimatization in an enclosure, they were housed in a specific 10-acre area near Khandia Nai under Kurujang panchayat about 3 km off the main Kakatpur Model school road.
The project met with miseries because of nine blackbuck dying. Reportedly, Balukhand Sanctuary is being considered as a non-conducive environment for the species. There are concerns that less experienced forest staff and management blunders on the part of the authorities led to the deaths. However, the forest department believes that some deaths were due to pneumonia.
Environmentalist Saroj Kumar Jena was critical of the department’s response: ‘If the pneumonia is blamed for deaths, then why not take immediate action when the deaths began? This is sheer negligence,’ he pointed out: ‘In the first place, staff with zero blackbuck knowledge has been assigned to the task. And, there needs to be a government probe into this.’
Bad Conditions at Balukhand Sanctuary
In his view, Harsh Conditions of the Sanctuary will not allow the survival of blackbuck. Because the sanctuary, being nearer to the sea, does not have a viable setting and that the Mendhi creeper providing crucial fodder to the blackbucks has succumbed. The survival of the species has been made severely tough.
Balukhand basically has no extensive grassy land. “The majority of the trees were uprooted in the cyclone of ‘Fani’, in 2019, after which, the area is highly subject to the heat and with average vegetation. These conditions just made it impracticable for blackbucks to thrive,” Sinha said.
He accused the forest officials of misuse of funds: ‘Corns of money were spent on guerrilla management, but the sanctuary could not meet blackbuck needs.’
Threats from Poaching and Illegal Trade
Blackbuck fur, horns, and other body parts are very lucrative in the illegal wildlife trade, commanding millions of rupees in the international market. The high demand for this demand only adds to the already high poaching activities of the poor blackbuck.
The ongoing Bishnoi protests against Salman Khan serve as a reminder of this species’ cultural importance in India. Blackbucks are not only essential components of the ecosystem; they also hold not only traditional but also cultural and religious significance.
Protection and Conservation Efforts of Blackbuck
Listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as ‘near threatened’, blackbucks have remained a primary constituent of the wildlife since 1948. It is strictly forbidden to hunt blackbucks according to the provisions of Schedule-I of the 1972 Wildlife Protection Act.
The Bhetonai–Balipadar project focuses on blackbuck conservation in Ganjam district, Odisha, under the Natural Resources Conservation Outside Protected Areas (NRCOPA) scheme. While these efforts have received the thumbs up from some experts, they argue the need for a scientific and monitored approach if similar schemes are to work well in other areas.
Blackbucks continue to be beleaguered by poor habitat, bad management, and poor climatic conditions, notwithstanding some ambitious conservation efforts. The Puri Forest Department, however, appears to remain upbeat; yet experts are calling for better planning, trained personnel, and effective habitat management to stave off the threat of any further losses for this iconic species.
They were freed into the sanctuary after a brief period of acclimatization. In the second phase, 13 more brought on September 19, 2024, from Nandankanan included seven males and six females. Eventually, the number rose to 25 blackbucks under close monitoring with two more introduced on September 27.
In early January 2025 three more blackbucks were transferred from Ganjam to the Chitreswari Sanctuary in Konark, including two females and one male.
