Another blackbuck has died in Odisha's Ganjam district, taking the death toll of the endangered species in the district to nine in this month so far, forest officials said Wednesday.
Ganjam district is the only habitat for the animal, also called Indian antelope, in Odisha. Forest officials on Wednesday recovered the carcass of an adult female blackbuck at Bhetanai under Aska forest range.
"The animal might have died of old age on Tuesday night," said Harihar Mallick, in-charge forest range officer, Aska.
At least eight blackbucks have died in Bhetanai area in September. While five of them died due to different diseases, one each died due to old age, road accident and infighting, sources said.
In Ganjam district, at least 25 blackbucks have died since March this year due to various reasons. As many as 18 and 21 blackbucks died in 2016-17 and 2015-16 respectively, sources said.
"Blackbucks come out in the open in search of food, which causes infighting among the herds. Besides, this gives way to road mishaps or they may even fall prey to predators, particularly stray dogs," a senior forest officer said.
This apart, old age was another major factor for a huge number of deaths, said Mallick.
Blackbucks are considered to be harbingers of good harvest. "The government has failed to take any special measures for the protection of blackbucks with deployment of wildlife protection squad," said Ganjam district blackbuck protection committee president Amulya Upadhaya.
He said they had demanded installation of speed breakers to avoid deaths via road accidents.
"We have made humps on the roads and put up signboards advising the motorists to control speed of vehicles in the blackbuck habitat areas," said Mallick.
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