A fortnight after the carcass of a blackbuck was found at Bhetanai area of Ganjam district, the only habitat of the endangered species in Odisha, another one was recovered from the same place.
Divisional Forest Officer, Ghumusar South, B K Acharya today said the carcass of the adult male blackbuck was recovered when stray dogs were devouring it.
Acharya said the postmortem examination report of the cadaver was yet to be received, but it appeared that the antelope died a natural death.
District Blackbuck Protection Committee president Amulya Upadhaya said though the carcass was spotted on Tuesday, the animal might have died earlier.
The carcass of another blackbuck was found from the same place around a fortnight back.
With this, at least 14 blackbucks have died at various places of the district during the past three months due to various reasons such as road accidents, attacks by stray dogs, fighting among themselves and natural causes, officials said.
As many as 18 and 21 blackbucks had died in 2016-17 and 2015-16 respectively, they said.
Upadhaya said forest officials should work out a strategy to provide safety to the endangered animal.
Poaching of the animals in the district is rare as local people consider blackbucks as harbinger of prosperity and believe that their sight would being good harvest.
While patrolling has been intensified in the area, signboards have also been erected asking people to move vehicles slowly in the blackbuck habitat areas, said the DFO.
Blackbuck was sighted only in some pockets of Ganjam district in the state. The population of the endangered species was enumerated at 3806 in 2015 as against 2194 in 2011, officials said.
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