Delhi, January 7, 2014: An International Fund for Animal Welfare-Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI) team rescued an adult male nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) from the heart of a busy locality in south Delhi on Friday, January 3.

The nilgai had been first spotted on December 26 in the Netaji Nagar area by the colony residents who informed Nisheeth Saxena, DCF (South), Delhi Forest Department, who contacted WTI. “The locals were requested to observe the nilgai and the latter was found eventually ‘stuck’ in a colony in Netaji Nagar with no apparent exit except for the main road where the chances of getting hit by oncoming traffic was high,” said Abhishek Narayanan, Technical Officer of WTI’s Rescue and Conflict Mitigation division.

With assistance from another Delhi-based organisation, Wildlife SOS, the rescue team then planned an extraction of the blue bull from the colony where the residents had not yet been antagonistic but were starting to get weary of the presence of a wild animal amongst their midst.

Dr Reetika Maheshwary, the IFAW-WTI veterinarian who was present for the rescue stated, “The nilgai was an old male and the efforts of netting hadn’t worked. In such a case, capture by chemical immobilization seemed to be the quickest and safest option for the antelope’s capture and translocation. Nilgai’s are extremely sensitive and it became pertinent to put as little stress on the animal as possible.”

The entire process took over an hour and the nilgai was, later in the day, released in the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, as it didn’t have any apparent incapacitating injuries with the permission of the Chief Wildlife Warden of Delhi, Shri. A K Shukla.

“Though it is hard to say where the nilgai came from, it is estimated that the closest natural habitat would be the central ridge area. Since the nilgai was old, we are assuming that he may have strayed into human habitation following territorial fights with younger males,” added Narayanan.

Boselaphus tragocamelus is the largest antelope found in the Asian sub-continent with a wide range distribution in India, said to be exceeding 100,000 individuals with abundance in the agricultural areas of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. They are also found in the low-land zone of Nepal along with a miniscule population along the border of Pakistan. Habitat loss due to rapid developmental activities in the city has forced nilgais to remain in isolated pockets, with no opportunity whatsoever to move into viable habitats.