The nilgai is India’s largest antelope, one of its most widely distributed large mammals, and possibly its most politically contested. In Bihar it is protected by religious sentiment. In Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh it has been declared vermin. The same animal, under the same law, treated in entirely opposite ways depending on where it stands.
Antlers and Antelopes series
The sambar is India’s largest deer, the tiger’s most important prey across much of its range, and one of the least-watched large mammals in the Indian forest. Its invisibility is almost entirely intentional.
No animal in India is more seen, more photographed, or more taken for granted than the chital. That is precisely why it deserves a closer look.
In 1967, there were just 66 barasingha left in Kanha. All of them lived in one meadow in that forest. This is how India pulled its most improbable deer back from the edge.