Thankfully, the Lahore High Court Chief Yawar Ali has taken up a petition seeking a ban on the hunting of blackbuck, an endangered species. Once common in India and parts of Pakistan the antelope's population has been dwindling fast due to hunting and habitat degradation. In this country, it is confined mainly to the Lal Sunhanra Park in Bahawalpur. Even there this vulnerable animal is not completely safe. According to the petitioner, within that protected area too blackbucks are hunted or stolen. Dissatisfied by the Punjab Chief Secretary's explanation that fencing of the park was near completion and that the government had signed an agreement with the Deer Foundation for a breeding programme, the CJ has ordered the wildlife and forest departments to come up with a complete record of antelope's population in Pakistan. The development cannot be welcomed enough.
Notably, in India, hunting of the blackbuck is prohibited under a wildlife protection law, and strictly implemented, too. Bollywood megastar Salman Khan accused of hunting two of these rare animals back in 1998 is still caught in an endless legal battle. Just last month a court in Jodhpur, near the scene of his alleged crime, handed him a five-year jail sentence. He has now gone into appeal in a higher court against the verdict. The case may have received the attention it has because of the celebratory status of the accused, but it surely would act as deterrent for other hunters and poachers.
The blackbuck is a beautiful animal. Nonetheless, it is not for aesthetic reasons alone why it must be saved. This endangered species is part of the ecosystem. Closely linked as they are, the loss of one species causes the loss of others. All flowers and fauna help maintain ecological balance on the planet and thereby a healthy environment. The humans need them for the sake of their own well-being. Unfortunately, in this country, those in authority have an incorrigible tendency to look for short-term gains, irrespective of the irreversible damage caused by their decisions. There is the big example of the houbara bustard. Even though it is on the International Union for the Conservation's Red List of threatened species, every year hunting licences are liberally issued to various important personages from the Gulf states. In the present instance, hunting activity, apparently, goes on even within the protected area with the connivance of the officials concerned. That is simply unacceptable. Hunting of the blackbuck must be stopped before it is too late.