By D N Singh
Ganjam: A little note or flutter from around, these animals slowly run towards the human habitation for safety. It may be a bit hard to believe as a reality but this is these story of the Black Bucks of Buguda block in Ganjam district in Odisha.
It may be a long story but they are instinctively closer to human beings which has developed in last few decades and behind that the role the villagers deserves credit” says Amulya Upadhyay, the main spirits behind the conservstion of the Black Bucks of Bududa block and Balipadar forest block, almost singlehandedly.
Some decades back the Black Bucks had been left to fend for themselves in three forest divisions thus increasing their vulnerability because of poaching and other factors which had emerged as a constant threat to their safety and their numbers had suffered a pathetic decline leaving about 300 to 400 black bucks( Krushnasar Hiran) looking for cover from poachers and farmers as latter also perceived them as danger to the standing crops” recalled Upadhyay.
“As legends say that once this patch of villages faced a great natural calamity of sorts, when there was no rain for over a year, acute water shortage and a famine like situation looming over” said septuagenarian Banshidhar Sahoo of Balipadar and he went on.
“One day there appeared dark clouds on the horizon and squally wind preceded by a huge herd of Black Bucks flit-footing towards the villages. Soon rains followed amid cheers from the villagers”
The villagers almost celebrated the footfalls of the Bucks as an auspicious sign and pledged to protect them in those areas. May be it was a faith that took roots in peoples’ mind for over a millennia and since then the co-existence continued.
When I was 12 years old I remember coming to the fields and forests and saw the Black Bucks grazing on the green pastures least worried of human presence and subsequently it so happened that they can be seen among village cattle in the same pastures. From then on I fell in love with the animals and pledged to play the role of conservation as far I could” said Upadhayay.
It is since last 17 years that Upadhyay leaving behind good job opportunities outside, remained committed for the conservation of the animals.
Upadhayay who was earlier a ‘Sarpanch’ dedicated his life virtually for the protection of the Black Bucks.
About 150 kms from Bhubaneswar is the Buguda and Balipadar forest division that is the second largest area which harbors’ the second largest population of Black Bucks after Rajasthan.
Amulya Upadhyay had to take a stance and he remained stuck to Black Buck conservation leaving behind all that matters in which Forest department assisted him a lot.
Amulya was in a moral compulsion to take a position for these helpless animals and ensure their protection. However, without local monitoring and cooperation with forest officials, the situation would not improve. So, in 1997, he founded the ‘Blackbuck Conservation Society’ to carry out awareness initiatives that encouraged native to fight for species protection on a personal basis.
“One member from each village in the region joined his society and took on the job of protecting blackbucks for his village” recalls Upadhyay.
Indeed, the forest department of the area played a good role in helping Upadhyay. who subsequently founded the Society’.
Dividends came and today, say after 17 years, the population of Black Bucks in this division has spiked from 300 odd to a remarkable 7000 Black Bucks.
