Protection Act of 1972. The blackbuck has significance in Hinduism; Indian and Nepali villagers do not harm the antelope. Etymology The scientific name of the blackbuck is Antilope cervicapra. Its generic name stems from the Latin word antalopus ("horned animal"). The specific name cervicapra is composed of the Latin words cervus ("deer") and capra ("she-goat"). The vernacular name "blackbuck" is a reference to the dark brown to black colour of the dorsal (upper) part of the coat of the males. The earliest recorded use of this name dates back to 1850. Alternative names for the blackbuck are "Indian antelope", kadiyal, kala hiran, krishna mriga in Kannada, krishnasaar in Hindi; kalvit in Marathi; krishna jinka in Telugu); and iralai maan in Tamil. Taxonomy and evolution The blackbuck is the sole living member of the genus Antilope and is classified in the family Bovidae. The species was described and given its binomial name by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae in 1758. Antilope also includes fossil species, such as Antilope subtorta and Antilope intermedia. Antilope, Eudorcas, Gazella, and Nanger form a clade within their tribe Antilopini. A 1995 study of the detailed karyotype of Antilope suggested that within this clade, Antilope is closest to the Gazella group. A 1999 phylogenetic analysis confirmed that Antilope is the closest sister taxon to Gazella, although an earlier phylogeny, proposed in 1976, placed Antilope as sister to Nanger. In a more recent revision of the phylogeny of the Antilopini on the basis of sequences from multiple nuclear and mitochondrial loci in 2013, Eva Verena Bärmann (of the University of Cambridge) and colleagues re-examined the phylogenetic relationships and found Antilope and Gazella to be sister genera distinct from the sister genera Nanger and Eudorcas. Two subspecies are recognised, although they might be independent species: A. c. cervicapra (Linnaeus, 1758), known as the southeastern blackbuck, occurs in southern, eastern, and central India. The white eye ring of the male is narrow above the eye and the neck is all black in the male and the white on the underside is largely restricted to the belly in both males and females. The black leg stripe is well defined and reaches all along the leg. A. c. rajputanae Zukowsky, 1927, known as the northwestern blackbuck, occurs in northwestern India. Males have a grey sheen to the dark parts during the breeding season. The white on