Freedom from fear of enemies and stressful life has also contributed in producing twins more often than is normal in the wild. The provision of twins in neelgai by nature is to offset the regular decline in population hunted down by predators like the wolves, hyaenas and, at times, by a pack of wild dogs. Such reduction in population benefits the species by elimination of the feeble and weak calves that, if left to themselves, would breed weaklings and degrade the viability and robust built-up necessary for a herd to outrun the enemy in the wild.
Though competition for food in the safari is present, the slightly less healthy calves do get their share from the leftover. In time they too become strong and sturdy by running along with the herd in the vast expanse of the enclosure.
Safari authorities do not sell them because they are now endangered in the wild. Their population was never a problem for the farmers as it is in the neighbouring India where the suffix ‘gai’ gives them a sanctity attached to the domestic cow that has been revered because the Hindu God Krishna, who loved cows and enjoyed milk and butter. Cows carry a suffix of ‘mata’ (mother in Hindi); with that reference their infertile and scrub population has created terrible problem by their uneconomic upkeep.
Neelgais, were stragglers in Pakistan’s area from India where from they sneaked at night in the border area of Bahawalpur and Thar desert. The recent electric and barbed-wire fencing has made their entry wellnigh impossible. Although Thar has recently beendeclared as Ramsar site, the wild neelgais still damage the scanty crops and get shot off and on. Their population is thus not abundant. In Bahawalpur, they have all been shot dead after the Nawab lost his control over his territorial rights. In his time, neelgais as well as black bucks were in plenty in the wild.
Balochistan has no neelgai nor has other districts of Sindh or Punjab. NWFP is too cold for this species. Neelgai in Safari is thus a great reserve but the cost of food is too much for the city government.
City zoo or the Safari Park would like to exchange them with the wild urial that many landlords and sardars rear against the impressive and proud herbivore that looks grand and beautiful in any national park or reserve.—Dr A. A. Quraishy