A female blackbuck with bullet injuries died in a veterinary hospital after it was rescued by forest personnel from near a college here on Monday.
"This is for the first time a case of blackbuck poaching was recorded in the range in the last five to six years," a forest officer of the Aska range said after the nearly
three-year-old animal was rescued and died.
President of Blackbuck Protection Commitee Amulya Upadhyay said locals have not been involved in the poaching as they had been protecting the blackbucks for
generations. Many blackbucks often stray into human habitations and poachers might have taken the opportunity.
According to a census in July 2011, now there are 2,181 blackbucks in the Forest Ranges of Aska, Buguda, Polasara, Khallikote and Brahmapur compared to 1,672 in 2008. Their number was 551 in 1998, 786 in 2004 and 1,101 in 2006.