Nilgai renamed 'rojad' in MP to legitimise its killing

Bhopal:The Madhya Pradesh will soon change the name of nilgai, an antelope, to ‘rojad’ in its rules. Legislators reached a consensus in the Assembly while discussing a question related to wildlife census.

For more than a decade, it has been legal for farmers in Madhya Pradesh to kill a nilgai by seeking permission from district authorities by citing continual damage to their standing crops.

But given that ‘gai’, meaning a cow, is part of the antelope’s name and invokes religious sentiments, only one farmer sought permission in the past 12 years. That too was rejected by a sub-divisional magistrate on the ground that the farmer was eligible for compensation to the standing crop.