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Dusk in rural India, farmhands sweep the land trying to drive away an animal that is threatening their livelihood. It's called nilgai or blue cow. In Rajasthan, nilgai roam in the hundreds, consuming anything and everything in their path, especially farmer's crops. Like many places, the spread of agriculture here has increased the competition for land between people and wildlife. But this is one competition the animals seem to be winning.
"The situation is extremely bad, especially for the smaller farmers. Because the nilgai have come and destroyed their crops so many times, it's not worth them planting anymore, and some of them are giving up their land."
In the land where so many live on the brink of poverty, a ruined crop can mean disaster, so when farmers' crops are in the fields, so are they keeping watch.
In fact many sleepless nights are spent chasing the unwelcome visitors through fences and across fields. Their piercing eyes reflect the light confirming their presence before they run away.
Simply reducing the nilgai population might seem to be an easy solution to the farmers' woes, but there's a problem. It lies in the animal's name.
"Gai" means cow and for Hindus, the cow was the most revered animal of all, allowed to roam freely in every city and village, and worshiped in temples. So, any animal with a word "cow" in its name is held in high regard.
But the nilgai, technically, is an antelope. There is hope. When people in the neighboring state of Punjab had a similar problem with nilgai fifty years ago, with the consent of holy men they changed the name of the animal, from nilgai, blue cow to nilghor, blue horse. Free of religious constraints, they could control the number of blue horses as they were then called. Whatever it is, horse or cow or antelope, as its numbers increase, the nilgai of Rajasthan will undoubtedly continue to come into conflict with farmers, each fighting over the fruit...
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