Opinion | ‘Bishnois And The Blackbuck’: Saving Environment The Dharma Way

Long before climate activism became a global movement, the Bishnois turned faith into the world’s longest-running conservation practice

Before environmentalism had a name, it had martyrs. The book, Bishnois and the Blackbuck: Can Dharma Save the Environment?, by Anu Lall tells the remarkable story of a community that turned faith into the world’s longest-running conservation practice.

The book comes at a time of growing concern over climate change and environmental degradation, offering a powerful reminder that environmental protection has long been a lived practice in India. Opening with the well-known blackbuck poaching case, it explores why the Bishnois stood firm against power and celebrity for the life of a wild animal.

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It traces their legacy from the historic Khejarli Massacre of 1730, where 363 men, women, and children sacrificed their lives to save trees, to contemporary legal battles fought to protect wildlife.

Drawing on history, religion, ecology and law, the book questions the over-reliance on Western models of conservation. It highlights how forests and nature have been regarded as sacred in India since the times of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and makes a strong case for a Dharma-based approach to environmental protection that remains highly relevant today.

The following is an edited extract from the book:

The Blackbuck Case at Kankani (FIR No. 93(26)/1998)

The most prominent of the three cases involved the killing of two blackbucks on the intervening night of 1 and 2 October, on the outskirts of Kankani village. Local villagers claimed to have seen a group of actors, including Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Sonali Bendre, and Neelam Kothari, chasing and killing the animals during a late-night safari. According to prosecution witnesses, the sound of gunfire and the headlights of the vehicle alerted the villagers and drew them to the scene, where they identified the actors as the occupants of the vehicle. Local Bishnoi community members became key complainants. Salman Khan was the primary accused in this case, along with others as co-accused. This case attracted the most media attention and saw significant courtroom drama.

The trial court again convicted Salman Khan, sentencing him to five years’ imprisonment and imposing a fine of Rs 10,000. However, the co-accused were acquitted due to a lack of direct evidence against them. The case is currently under appeal, with the Rajasthan High Court having assumed jurisdiction over all related appeals to ensure a holistic approach. The saga continues, now shaped as much by the courtroom as by the media’s lens.

As with the previous cases, the court observed many lacunae in the investigation of this case as well. Forensic delays, procedural gaps, and inconsistent witness testimonies plagued the investigation.

Crucially, no investigation was conducted to establish where the blackbuck carcasses were taken after the alleged hunting, nor what happened to them thereafter — a critical link in the chain of evidence left entirely unexamined.

The forensic findings were ambiguous and could not provide proof. The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) could not provide a definitive opinion on whether the hair and tail samples recovered from the vehicle or site belonged to a blackbuck or another animal. This lack of conclusive identification struck at the heart of the case, which rested on proving that a protected species had been killed.

Further complications arose from delayed and contaminated vehicle tyre impression matching. Tyre moulds collected from the alleged scene — twelve days after the incident — were matched against the accused’s vehicle. But the delay, coupled with the site’s location in a military area frequented by several military vehicles, rendered the evidence unreliable. Even after the delayed collection, the tyre impressions were not sent for FSL examination until nearly one and a half months later, making evidentiary dilution almost certain.

Across all three judgements, the courts repeatedly identified a consistent pattern of investigation failures:

Failure to cross-examine witnesses in court

Delays in collecting and processing forensic evidence

Lack of chain-of-custody documentation

These trials not only revealed the challenges of prosecuting wildlife crime in India but also reflected the pressures of media scrutiny and the celebrity justice paradox.

Some publications reported how poor enforcement and weak laws make poaching an easy game (Down to Earth, 2012), citing the lapses in investigation, botched evidence, and hostile witnesses.

We may never know who really killed the blackbucks and chinkaras, yet the case still consistently makes headlines. Salman Khan has consistently denied all allegations.

What began as a series of alleged poaching incidents became a national obsession. The so-called ‘Salman Khan blackbuck case’ transcended the courtroom, dominating headlines, prime-time television debates, and public memory. While the media and public viewed it as one consolidated ‘Salman Khan blackbuck case’, the legal system saw it as three distinct trials — each with its own facts, failings, merits, and implications; they remind us that justice demands more than outrage — it demands thoroughness, credibility, and an unwavering commitment to the rule of law.

The Other Blackbuck Case

Eight years after actor Saif Ali Khan was named a co-accused in the high-profile blackbuck hunting case along with Salman Khan, his father also allegedly became involved in poaching a blackbuck. On 5 June 2005, cricket legend Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, famously nicknamed ‘Tiger’, found himself — along with seven others (Shashi Singh, Dayal Singh, Shaheed Ahmad, Daya Suddin, Mohammad Ayub Khan, Karam Singh, and Balwan) — not on a lush cricket field, but accused of poaching a blackbuck and rabbits in Jhajjar, Haryana. The elegance and charm that had defined his career stood in stark contrast to the serious accusations levelled against him. Pataudi surrendered in court on 18 June 2005. His anticipatory bail had been rejected and, with no choice left, the former captain faced the court’s authority.

Booked under Sections 9, 39, and 51 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, Pataudi spent three nights in a prison cell. A .22-bore rifle registered in the name of Pataudi’s daughter, Soha Ali Khan, was recovered from the site. In 2009, Soha Ali’s arms licence was cancelled due to violation of arms rules (Times of India, 2015).

Pataudi’s legal counsel fervently argued that the charges were baseless. Advocating for the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), Saurabh Sharma asserted that the evidence was undeniable, proof gathered with painstaking diligence, demanding justice for the slain animal. The trial’s path was far from straightforward, delayed due to legal technicalities concerning jurisdictional debates and administrative delays that prolonged the proceedings. In 2011, Pataudi died during the trial period and his name was dropped from the accused list in the case. All the other accused were convicted by a Haryana court in 2015 (India Today, 2018).

The Rise of Lawrence Bishnoi

Another development that has unexpectedly brought the blackbuck case back into public memory is the rise of Lawrence Bishnoi. Bishnoi, charged in more than twenty cases ranging from attempted murder, carjacking, and extortion to violations under the Arms Act in the Punjab–Haryana belt, insists that he is being falsely implicated (Financial Express, 2018). He has issued a threat to actor Salman Khan, warning, “We do not have any enmity with anyone, but whoever helps Salman Khan, keep your accounts in order" (Al Jazeera, 2024).

For many, this was the moment when the once-quiet name of the Bishnoi community was catapulted into the national spotlight once again, though under very different circumstances from their traditional association with ecology and non-violence.

Within the Bishnoi community itself, Lawrence Bishnoi’s persona has become polarising. He is, at once, a symbol of defiance and a source of discomfort. During my travels, a young taxi driver, barely in his twenties, spoke with disarming conviction in Lawrence’s defence. He saw him as a man delivering instant justice. His words revealed an undercurrent of generational frustration.

But not all Bishnois share that sentiment. Many elders, while empathetic to Lawrence’s anger, are deeply uneasy with his methods. Some have urged Salman Khan to apologise for the alleged killing of the blackbuck; others argue that the matter belongs squarely to the courts, cautioning against taking justice into one’s own hands. The community today stands divided — not over its core beliefs, but over how those beliefs should manifest in a world where law, celebrity, and emotion collide.

This division is telling. It reveals how even a shared moral compass can fragment under the pressure of modernity and media narratives. The spiritual philosophy of the Bishnois, rooted in compassion, restraint, and ecological guardianship, finds itself interpreted in starkly different ways: one invoking patience and legal process, the other claiming to act as nature’s avenger.

In documenting this case, I have consciously chosen to step away from personality cults. The aim here is not to romanticise or vilify individuals, but to return to facts, law, and the deeper essence of Bishnoi thought. The community’s legacy — born from Guru Jambheshwar’s teachings within the larger frame of Sanatan Dharma — is not merely about protecting trees and wildlife. It is about sustaining the moral ecology of balance: between man and nature, justice and humility, passion and peace.

Anu Lall is a lawyer and author. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.

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