Blue Bull-India

[Guest guest]

Dear Kim,

Thank you for wonderful Article.

Blue Bulls are nearing extinction in India.But,Govts of Punjab,Haryana,Uttar Pradesh and Rajsthan have issued orders to kill them if they come out in fields of farmers or are in

the way to issue same.

Kindly oppose tis at all the plateforms and advise all the groups to send protest letters to Chief Ministers of Punjab(at Chandigarh),Haryana(at Chandigarh),Rajsthan (at Jaipur)and Uttar Pradesh(Lucknow) in India and also to Minister of Environment and Forests ,Govt.of India,New Delhi(mef).An Article in this context is;

Spare a thought for Blue Bull

Man-animal conflict avoidable

by Lt Gen Baljit Singh (retd)

 

 

A male and a female Nilgai (Blue Bull)

 

 

THE Blue Bull is endemic to India alone, that is, it is not found anywhere else in the world, which places it in the class of living world heritage that needs to be preserved to posterity.

 

In its prime, the Bull is a picture of muscle-power, dignity and pride. The male has a silk-smooth, steel-grey coat with a bluish tinge all over except one pure white patch under the chin extending to the throat and a white ring above all four fetlocks. Just below the white throat-patch, there is a conspicuous tuft of black hair so stiff that it resembles the stylised beard of the Pharoah Ramses of Egypt! Its polished black horns are seldom more than 10 inches long. The sparse mein is also black. And of course, there are two white, beauty spots on each cheek!

 

The female on the other hand is smaller, sandy-brown overall on the upper body and white below. Normally, one young is born in the year though sometimes there are twins as well. In looks, behaviour and size, they are like fawns of the Sambhar. In the natural way, the lion, the tiger and the leopard hunt them for food and maintain their population in check. There is no recorded or oral history of physical aggression to man by the Blue Bull.

 

At the turn of the last century, the Blue Bull were in abundance on the sub-continent east of the Indus, south of the Himalayan foothills and west of Siliguri-Madras alignment. The first quarter of that century marked the beginning of the overexploitation of India’s green cover. The period between the two world wars is the historical bench-mark when scars of degradation of habitats became visibly evident. This is when the pink-headed duck became extinct, only a handful of the Indian cheetah survived and the Indian rhinocerous, Asiatic Lion, the tiger and the leopard slipped close to the endangered levels of survival.

 

Regrettably, the drop in the population of birds and animals goes without notice till it is too late. After WW II, and following India’s Independence, the pace of over exploitation of natural habitats exceeded the combined utilisation over the previous 300 years. The cheetah vanished for ever in 1949 and the Blue Bull became extinct from south of the Deccan by 1970 as stated by the late M. Krishnan, an authority on India’s wildlife. That is when the tiger emerged as the flagship animal of the national wildlife conservation strategy. The extinction of the Blue Bull from the lower half of the penninsula went unnoticed and unmourned.

 

Today, the Blue Bull survives in patches mainly in central and north-west India. Even at this late stage no attempt has been made to take a nation-wide census, but it is a firmly held belief that the overall number of the Blue Bull has already diminished below the viable population level for the country as a whole. And that is the stage when a disaster management strategy alone can salvage this species from certain extinction. The ultimate tragedy of the Blue Bull is that the farming communities in the agricultural belts of India are now baying for the blood of this antelope. The mercenaries among press reporters jump on the bandwagon and whip up a false hysteria without sparing a thought to understand the plight of the Blue Bull. The naked truth is that almost always the threat of extinction of any species arises from mismanagement operating at three levels, viz, the forest dwelling tribals and agriculturists ignorance that their basic life-sustaining links are dependent on flourishing biological diversity, the ill-educated politicians who are abys- mally ignorant of symbiotic interplay within the web-of-life and forces of sustainability and lastly, the unaccountability of the tribe of arrogant bureaucrats who shut their minds to Indian’s earthy wisdom.

 

Admittedly, the Blue Bull can and does wreak havoc on crops. No farmer can condone that damage. No politician has the integrity to admit the flawed policy decisions that robbed the Blue Bull of their legitimate habitat in the first place. The bureaucrats had lacked the vision in policy formulations and now they neither display the moral courage to admit their failure nor the nerve to advise and put into immediate practice strategies to meet the crises head-on.

 

We are faced with the classic man-animal conflict situation only. Naturally, Man’s interests must assume precedence but concurrently we must provide for the assured survival of the Blue Bull as a species. Going by the first principle, ample browse and grazing must be made available on government lands (forest lands of all categories) and on village common lands. The quality of habitats must be so upgraded that it detracts animals from entering farm lands. Harnessing the latest in the field of bio-genetics technology, a 20-year habitat revival package plan must be activated.

 

Simultaneously, an insurance plan at the national level to specifically address damage to crops by Blue Bull must come into force also for 20-years. The scheme must operate at the village panchayat level to ensure timely monetry relief.

 

And lastly, for a permanent solution an assessment needs to be made of the optimum population of Blue Bull which the re-created habitats in the new ground reality will sustain and where need be, the state must scientifically cull the surplus numbers. There will be plenty of hiccups to kick-start such a seemingly complex plan but when at stake is the prevention of extinction of India’s endemic antelope species, as handsome as the Blue Bull, no effort must be spared.

 

The gung-ho policy of the Punjab, UP and Rajasthan Governments to issue shooting permits to exterminate the Blue Bull on farm lands is a criminal folly. Because of the strong Bishnoi lobby, Haryana Government alone has shown prudence. Shortly after assuming office, the Punjab Government had sent almost all members of the State Wildlife Board and the PCCF Punjab to Africa at the Government expense to study their wildlife management practices. Did not the Punjab Government know that countries of the world often engage the Wildlife Institute of India. Dehradun (a centre of excellence) to provide them consultancy services on wildlife management at lakhs of rupees? Never mind the faux pas but did they do adequate home-task before setting out to Africa? For instance, did they realise that even in Africa’s diminished habitats nearly seven lakh African elephants and agriculturists communities live in reasonable amity today? How? What did these worthies learn and what did they advise the Chief Minister, who is also the Minister of Environment and Forests. If we do not act now to ensure the survival of the Blue Bull species and simultaneously ensuring minimal damage to crops, 50 years hence this magnificent antelope will surely be lost for ever from the world’s living heritage, like the dodo.

 

The writer is a member of the Bombay Natural History Society

 

 

 

 

 

 

(www.tribuneindia.com/13.8.2004/0pinions)