25 blackbucks die; pesticide role seen

Hyderabad: As many as 25 blackbucks were found dead near Gummadam in Mahbubnagar district. Forest officials were alerted by the Kothakota police. Officials found the carcasses spread over a large area. “We suspect that the blackbucks died after eating pesticide-laden crops from a maize field nearby,” and official said. The area is government land located close to the Krishna river which gets submerged when the Srisailam dam has water. When there is no water, farmers from nearby villagers cultivate on this land which forms a good habitat for the blackbucks. It is said that there are over 500 blackbucks in the area.

A forest department official said that the area got submerged when the gates of the Jurala reservoir were opened, which pushed the blackbucks towards the fields. Action will be taken against those who do cultivation on government land, he said. The farmers will be booked under Wildlife Protection Act for the deaths of blackbucks, a Schedule-I protected species.

Veterinary doctors from the animal husbandry department took samples from the carcasses for forensic tests to ascertain the cause of the death. The incident has also exposed the man-animal conflict as blackbucks need open grasslands and scrubs for their survival, and not wooded forests. However, scrubs are getting encroached upon by humans, forcing the animals to get into human habitations for food. The availability of food in agricultural fields combined with lack of natural predators has boosted their population.