India Changing the nilgai's name as management strategy | Janaki Lenin

In parts of India, farmers struggle to save their crops from nilgais. These are Asia’s largest antelopes; adult bucks stand 1.5m (5ft) at the shoulder and weigh about 300kg (45st). In English, they are often called ‘blue bulls’ because of the bucks’ bluish hue. One farmer told ANI News, “These nilgais are like militants, no one can tell when they will attack. They come in herds of 40 to 50, and destroy entire fields. How long can we live like this? If this goes on, we will be forced to abandon agriculture and become hermits.” Farmers use a range of tricks to keep the animals away from their crops such as fladry, scare crows, fire, and fencing their fields with tall thorny trees. Despite these efforts, wherever they are abundant, nilgais can damage as much as 60 to 70% of the crop. In March 2014, opium farmers of Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, demanded the return of two leopards that had been removed from the area. They claimed nilgais had proliferated in the absence of predators. Some farmers prefer illegally hooking live wires to their fences. Just one such fence protecting a one-acre field in Uttar Pradesh killed three nilgais, two sambhar deer, and one jackal. Yielding to pressure from farmers, some states such as Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh allow nilgais feasting on crops to be killed. Since the species is protected by law, nobody can eat the meat, and carcasses have to be given to the state’s forest department for cremation. Animal welfare activists allege the crop protection measure can be exploited by rich sport hunters. Others say the law can be misused to poach other wildlife species. But few nilgais are killed. Is it because the process of obtaining a license is tedious? O.P. Meena, Additional Chief Secretary, Forest and Wildlife, Rajasthan, told The Indian Express, in his state, “Not a single nilgai was ever culled under the existing order because people want the forest department to do the dirty job. Most of the people are vegetarians and there is a religious angle.” The gai in the animal’s name means ‘cow,’ and the association provides sanctity to the nilgai. Over the years, there’s an effort to re-name the species. People of Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Haryana call the animal rojh or roz. By changing the name to vanroz, meaning forest antelope, officials hope they can get around the religious conundrum posed by the name.