The villagers of Gummadam on the banks of Krishna in the Mahbubnagar district of Telangana woke up to a pathetic scene on Saturday when 25 blackbuck, a species of deer called Indian antelope, were found dead after consuming pesticide and fertilizers used for maize crop.
The blackbuck, a Schedule I animal under the Wildlife Protection Act, apparently rushed out of their habitat which was a degraded forest due to the gushing of backwater from the Srisailam reservoir and grazed on a maize crop nearby. The reservoir received heavy inflows from the river in the last two days with the flood exceeding two lakh cusecs in the early hours of Saturday. Farmers Purshotham and Beeraiah had put granules of pesticide and fertilizers in the hollow stalk of maize for better growth which the deer consumed. Mahbubnagar Divisional Forest Officer Chukka Ganga Reddy told The Hindu that the farmers had resorted to illegal cultivation as the lands in the village were notified as submergence area of Srisailam project, and compensation was paid by the government for land oustees. .
Mr. Reddy said the farmers would be booked for hunting under the Wildlife Act.
