Blackbuck

Classified as near threatened by IUCN since 2003, as the blackbuck range has decreased sharply during the 20th century, the blackbuck is the only living species of the genus Antilope. Males and females have distinctive coloration. Male blackbucks are black and white and have long twisted horns, while females are fawn coloured with no horns. The horns of the blackbuck are ringed with 1 to 4 spiral turns, rarely more than 4 turns. In the male, the upper body is black (dark brown), and the belly and eye rings are white. The light-brown female is usually hornless. Blackbucks generally live on open plains in herds of 15 to 20 animals with one dominant male. They are very fast. Speeds of more than 80 km/h (50 mph) have been recorded. Its chief predator was the now extinct Indian cheetah. It is now sometimes preyed upon by wolves and feral dogs. The diet of the blackbuck consists mostly of grasses, although it will eat pods, flowers and fruits to supplement its diet. Large herds once roamed freely on the plains of North India, where they thrived best. During the 18th, 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries, blackbuck was the most hunted wild animal all over India. Till Indian independence in 1947, many princely states used to hunt the Indian Antelope and gazelle with cheetahs, which became extinct in 1960s. Though the royal sport had ended, growing cultivation saw it as crop-raider, further leading to its decline. Eventually, when in the 1970s several areas reported their extinction, it was enlisted as a protected animal under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. The blackbuck is hunted for its flesh and its skin. Although Indian law strictly prohibits the hunting of these endangered animals, there are still occasional incidents of poaching. The remaining populations are under threat from inbreeding. The natural habitat of the Blackbuck is being encroached upon by man's need for arable land and grazing ground for domesticated cattle. Exposure to domesticated cattle also renders the Blackbuck exposed to bovine diseases. Its protected status has gained publicity through a widely reported court case, in which one of India's leading film stars, Salman Khan, was sentenced to five years imprisonment for killing two blackbucks and several endangered chinkaras. The arrest was prompted by intense protests from the Bishnoi ethnic group, which holds animals and trees sacred, and on whose land the hunting had taken place. In another notorious incident of criminal poaching, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi also killed a blackbuck, and then absconded as a fugitive. The skin of Blackbuck plays an important role in Hinduism, and Brahmin boys are traditionally required to wear a strip of unleathered hide after performing Upanayanam. According to the Hindu mythology Blackbuck or Krishna Jinka is considered as the vehicle (vahana) of the Moon-god Chandrama.
According to the Garuda Purana of Hindu Mythology, Krishna Jinka bestows prosperity in the areas where they live.