CHENNAI: Thirty-five deer have died on the IIT Madras campus from July to December 2021, an RTI reply from the forest department has revealed. Of these, two deer died of tuberculosis, two of weakness, four from various diseases and four due to plastic ingestion, the reply said. Two had bite marks. Data on the remaining deaths was not available as the carcasses were not sent to the forest department for postmortem.
IIT-M has been in the news since October 2020 when it impounded 188 stray dogs and placed them in a park on the campus saying they had killed more than 55 deer from 2019 to 2020. However, over two years, about 50 dogs died, 40 were adopted and 41 rescued by NGOs. There is no information/records for the rest. On January 8, 2022, during a hearing in the Madras high court on a petition filed by People for Cattle in India, IIT-M said about 22 dogs were on the campus.
