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Plea against translocating deer turned down
The Madras High Court has refused to intervene in the move by the Tamil Nadu Forest department to relocate spotted deer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) and Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) campuses here in Guindy to natural habitats like reserve forests.
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Chennai
A division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice N Seshasayee concurred with the submissions of the Forest department that the deer were being relocated only to save them from death due to consumption of plastic waste, and passed the order on Friday refusing to restrain the relocation process.
Directing the department to resort to best practice as per rules regards relocation, the bench dismissed the public interest litigation (PIL) moved by animal activist S Muralidharan challenging the decision to relocate the free-ranging deer from CLRI campus.
Seeking to restrain the department from shifting 70 deer from CLRI campus, the plea had contended that such a move in June 2019, wherein 10 deer were translocated to Kalakkad Mundanthurai tiger reserve, had turned disastrous, as the deer not used to surviving in the wild, were killed by a leopard within days.
Opposing the plea, the Forest department submitted that at least 497 spotted deer had died on IIT-Madras and CLRT campuses in the last five years. Autopsy had revealed that most of the deer had four to six kg of plastic waste in their stomach.
In addition to this, the animals also face numerous threats like attacks by stray dogs, pollution, solid waste intake, faecal impaction, polythene ingestion, choking, vehicle hit, drainage intake and exposure to diseases, it added.
It also was submitted that Raj Bhavan, IIT-Madras and CLRI premises were not the natural habitat of spotted deer, as the areas do not offer food, water and cover unlike natural habitats. Also, because of construction of buildings, fences, and compound walls around these institutions, deer that were once moving all around in the open area get trapped in such campuses and were exposed to various threats, the department said.
It was further argued that spotted deer are prolific breeders and hence it is important that these animals breed in their natural habitat like reserved forests, sanctuaries and national parks, and become part of the intricate food chain.
DATA ON DEER DEATH
Average annual fatality 100
In past 5 years, 497 deer have died in city
Reasons: Dog attacks, consumption of plastic waste and run over by vehicles
Post HC nod, Forest dept working on guidelines
The State Forest department is now working on guidelines and frameworks to shift the free-ranging spotted deer in Chennai after the High Court turned down a plea to stop the translocation.
However, an official said the deer that are safe inside the Guindy National Park and Raj Bhavan will not be shifted.
Chennai is home to spotted deer and blackbuck, which have taken a hit due to developmental activities and pollution, said Forest officials.
“We are forced to shift the deer as they have become vulnerable to dog attacks, food chain pollution and accidents. We are left with no other option, as the buildings have come up choking the deer population around CLRI campus,” an official said. A lot of research and inputs from wildlife experts have gone into the translocation work and now the protocol is being streamlined, the official said.
The campuses of Raj Bhavan, IIT-Madras, CLRI, King Institute in Guindy, and Poultry Research Station in Nandanam, and parts of Adyar, Kotturpuram, Indira Nagar and Tambram, supported spotted deer breeding till 2015. “But the failure of Forest department has now forced the relocation of the deer,” said a Forest ranger who has served in Chennai.
According to him, regulating vehicle movement and plastic ban on these campuses would have helped the deer, the ranger opined. The official also noted that many deer that were shifted from CLRI premise to reserve forests were hunted by the wild leopards within days. “This is what happens when you translocate deer from a city to forests,” the ranger noted.
“It’s a question of development versus wildlife conservation where conservation will take a beating. But now, with the construction of many buildings trapping the deer, it is better to find a new home for them,” opined naturalist Poochi Venkat, who has authored books on Chennai’s insect biodiversity.
The deer population in the city had a free-ranging area once. But now, when there are no playgrounds for children, where is the concept of free-ranging for wildlife, he commented. Another issue is the existence of deer population without a predator, he said, adding: “It is a complex balancing task for the foresters to ensure the survival of remaining deer population
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