Abohar Wildlife Sanctuary

Abohar Wildlife Sanctuary in Fazilka district, Punjab, was given sanctuary status in 1975 and once more in 2000 under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. It is a private reserve covering more than 18,650 hectares, made up of 13 revenue villages of the Bishnoi community, whose farmers work to protect the blackbuck, an animal they hold sacred.

The sanctuary is a well-known tourist spot, famous above all for its blackbuck and nilgai, or blue bull, along with hares, jackals and wild boar, and trees such as siris, babul and neem. The blackbuck here face feral dogs, loss of habitat and the bladed cobra wire that farmers put up as fencing; their numbers dropped to 3,273 in 2017 from 3,500 in 2011, and moving some of the herd to Sohian Bir has been proposed.