CHENNAI: In IIT-Madras, rare is perhaps commonplace. This albino black buck, grazing on the sylvan IIT campus, was captured by our lensman Martin Louis. In fact, an albino black buck is a rare phenomenon anywhere in the world. And IIT Madras has not one, but two of them. The first sighting of the albino antelope fawn was in 2008, says Dr Arivalagan, project coordinator, CareEarth. “When we were monitoring the deer population on the IIT campus, we sighted one albino fawn in 2008. And this year (2011), one more fawn was sighted,” Dr Arivalagan adds.
Ecological scientists at CareEarth attribute this phenomenon to inbreeding. The black buck population in IIT, numbering close to 30 now, is an isolated population and hence, inbreeding has led to this rare happening. The adjacent Guindy National Park, which recently raised its boundary wall, could have further isolated the animals within the IIT campus, the scientists feel.
A Schedule 1 animal, the black buck enjoys the same status as the tiger in terms of protection by the Wildlife Act. But their population was dwindling following which, IIT-Madras approached CareEarth to draw up a comprehensive ecological management plan that could be implemented on campus.
After the plan was implemented, the black buck population improved. The connectivity between IIT and Guindy National Park should be ensured.