At the end of my first year working towards a B.Sc. graduation in Zoology in Tiruchi, when I was busy cramming ­information about the various invertebrate phyla, I was asked, along with some two or three senior students, to volunteer in counting blackbuck. I doubt if I knew what they were, but my Professor convinced me that this was a not-to-be-missed chance of a trip to Point Cali­mere (Kodaikanal).

This trek was the idea of the Forest Department, Tiruchi. A wonderful idea with the double purpose of sensitising youth to wildlife and carrying out a ­census of animals. Definitely it worked, at least in my case. It it had not been for them, I doubt if I would have developed an ­interest in the ‘life’ part of life sciences; I would possibly have gone into medicine or microbiology instead and, who knows, may have continued to be blind to the biodiversity around.

We reached Point Calimere at night and even as we entered the protected area through a narrow road, we saw eyes of various animals relflected in the headlights of the bus. A small group of feral horses was grazing not far from the forest guest house. Feral? ‘Feral’ refers to animals that have descended from domesticated aniimals but are now living wild, explained one of the forest officials with us. After an early morning ­lecture on migratory birds by the resident BNHS scientist, we were divided into groups, each assigned one area to count the blackbuck. That is when I first got to see them. We first learnt to identify the various animals in the herd and I wrote this in a note about the trip.

“The fully grown adult bucks had a black coat on their backs and had horns with three rings. The sub-adult males did not have so dark a coat and had horns with one or two rings. The females were light coloured and the white stripe across their belly was prominent. There were fawns too. The first group that we saw consisted of an adult male, a female and a fawn. They appear to have sensed our approach though we were at quite some distance. Through the ­binoculars we saw the majestic splendour of the male, standing erect and tense, poised to run if we approached closer. The female and the fawn were grazing quitely nearby.”

Later, we did see some ­animals trotting and then ­galloping. An unforgettable sight indeed!

Blackbuck are bovines. Bovi­dae, or bovines, are animals with cloven-hoofs and characteristic unbranching horns ­covered in a permanent sheath of keratin. The term ‘Antelope’ is used to describe all members of the family including Bovidae that do not fall under the ­category of sheep, cattle, or goats. Wikipedia tells us that the English word “antelope” first appeared in 1417 and is ­derived from the Old French antelop, itself derived from ­Medieval Latin ant(h)alopus, which in turn comes from the [Byzan­tine ­Greek] word antho­lops. It is also possible that the word is derived from the Greek anthos (flower) and lopos (eye) indicating beautiful eye or ­alluding to the long eyelashes. There are many references to ‘doe eyes’ in Indian literature too but, interestingly, antelope are merely ‘a type of deer’ in Tamil; looks like they don’t have a special name of their own. Like all ruminants, they digest food in two steps. First they chew and swallow in the normal way, and then regurgitate the semi-digested cud to re-chew it and thus extract the maximum possible food value. That is because they feed largely on grasses.

While many antelope species are native to Africa, blackbuck are native to the Indian subcontinent. A couple of centuries ago, they were found in large herds all over the country. ­Today, the blackbuck is listed as ‘near threatened’. It is protected under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

So what made this animal that once was seen in large herds across the cuontry to be listed as a threatened species? The primary reason is its speed. In fact, the swift movement of the antelope has been recogni­sed from ancient times in our scriptures. Nandita Krishna in her book, Sacred Animals of ­India, tells us that the antelope was considered the vehicle of Vayu, the Wind God. It was the mount of the Maruts, the storm deities. Lord Shiva is seen in many sculptures holding a horned stag, representing control over the restless mind and thoughts, for “thoughts are like the antelope, flying switfly as the wind.”

From time immemorial, ­antelope have been hunted by kings. In nature, their chief predator was the cheetah. Trained captive Asiatic cheetahs, now extinct, were used to hunt this graceful animal. Soon, the large herds began to shrink. The killing of antelopes was so rampant that a movement developed to protect them with the birth of Guru Jambeshwar (Jambaji) in 1485 CE in Bika­ner, Rajasthan, and the establishment of the Bishnoi who follow his 29 principles of which eight are about preserving biodiversity. The Bishnoi are strong protectors of black­buck as they revere them as Jambaji. They share their crops with blackbuck and other antelope and even bring up ­orphaned fawns. They are also strong protectors of the trees, a lifeline in the desert.

It is not just in Rajasthan that these graceful animals are protected by locals. In Ganjam district of Odisha, locals in the Balipadar-Bhetnoi area protect the blackbuck that range freely, sometimes even eating part of their crop. It seems that over a century ago, the locality was hit by a long spell of drought. During this period, a small group of blackbuck appeared in the area. Soon after, it began to rain and the drought was broken. ­Subsequently, the locals began to associate their prosperity with the blackbuck and, now, actively protect them.

Despite such instances, the blackbuck population is shrinking as they are under threat from poaching as well as being at risk from inbreeding because of the isolated populations, apart from the loss of habitat as open areas are taken over for agriculture and other activities. There are, of course, a number of protected areas. In Chennai, you can see some blackbuck in the IIT ­campus too, a part of Guindy National Park. It was a lovely surprise to see a young buck trotting out from behind some bushes as we walked out from the Humanities Block one day. I quickly pulled out my cell­phone and took a picture but all that I got was a blur. Speed, thy name is blackbuck. (Courtesy: Sri Aurobindo’s Action)