Stop relocation of deer from Chennai: Plea

A division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice N Seshasayee, before whom a public interest litigation plea moved by S. Muralidharan, an animal lover, came in this regard on Monday, ordered notice to the state returnable by October 11. The bench also made it known that it intends to obtain expert opinion in this regard.

The petitioner submitted that in the last two to three decades, large number of constructions have mushroomed in IIT and Anna University, resulting in the loss of foraging grounds for deer. Owing to this, the spotted deer population had spilled over to neighbouring areas like Vellachery, Taramani, Adyar, Kotturpuram, Nandanam, Saidapet, Ekkaduthangal and Perungudi.

Based on this, the PCCF, citing the interest of the deer during last year, had ventured into relocation operation in Taramani area, where 34 deer were sighted, but ended in a disaster with many dying immediately due to stress and trauma. Moreover, during June 2019, the Forest Department had captured about 150 deer in Chennai out of which 10 were transported to Kalakkad Mundanthurai tiger reserve where deer population had dwindled.

But with the deer not used to surviving in the wild, one of it was mauled and killed by a leopard within days of relocation. Also, the deer in urban areas are prone to contagious disease like tuberculosis and relocating those deer to the wild will infect the wild deer population, which consequently will affect the other fauna of the jungle, the plea said.

Following the relocation of 10 deer, the PCCF had relocated another 23 deer to Kavuthi Reserve Forest in Tiruvannamalai. Now, plans are on to relocate the remaining captured deer in batches to various reserved forest situated in both the Western and Eastern Ghats. Besides this, the Forest Department is contemplating to catch 70 deer from the 75-acre campus of CLRI for relocation, which needs to be restrained, the plea said.