On 24 March, a countrywide lockdown was announced by the Central Government of India. With a sudden extreme reduction in human activity, two days later, the Nilgai was spotted roaming the streets.
Nilgai are not an extremely rare sight. Sushil Kumar Jain, president of Sector-18 market association, said “In 1994 there were over10 Nilgai which could be found roaming within Sector-18 and we had to make complaints to the Noida Authority. We are seeing this after 15 years.”
The IUCN lists Nilgai as an animal of ‘least concern’. In India, Nilgai is both revered as a sacred animal – because of its association with the mother animal in Hinduism, the cow – and considered a pest in most north Indian states as it ravages crop fields.
However, this particular one just seems to be curious – leaving its herd to check why this region seems peculiarly tranquil.
