Blackbuck: The long-lost antelope
Blackbuck is one of the six antelopes of the Indian Subcontinent. Just a century back, the beautiful black-and-white animals used to roam the savanna tracts of the Greater Dinajpur region
The most appealing of the entire Indian Subcontinent bovid diversity is the blackbuck. Full grown males are the show-stoppers, a norm in the group.
With black torso and snow-white belly, legs carefully patterned with black streak on white base, white eye-patch on a black face, straight, paired horns with spiraling rings, this antelope is a shining example of synchronicity.
The blackbuck is a diurnal antelope, though is less active at noon when summer temperatures rise. It can run at a speed of 80 kilometres per hour.
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The blackbuck is a species of grassy plains and lightly forested areas; habitats which no longer exist in Bangladesh. So does not the blackbuck.
Species profile
Common and scientific name: Blackbuck Antelope cervicapra
The Antelope is endemic to the Indian subcontinent. Pakistan also lost their blackbuck populations. In Nepal, the last surviving blackbucks inhabit the Bardia National Park. In 2008, the population was estimated to comprise 184 individuals.
Blackbuck, like all antelopes, are fixed horn-species. In contrast, deer yearly shed their horny projection, producing one or more tings during regeneration until it gets a mature-shape.
In 2018, Bollywood actor Salman Khan, in a high-profile case, was sentenced to five years imprisonment for poaching a blackbuck in 1998.
