Following the closure of the deer park in Udhagamandalam, the Forest Department has handed over the land on which the park stood to the Tourism Department.
Said to be around 22 acres in area, the deer park hosted a variety of deer, including sambar deer, the last of which were released back into the wild, a few years ago. The park had failed after the captive population began in-breeding, leading to huge numbers of mortalities among the herd over the years leading to its closure.
Forest officials had initially planned on transferring the animals to a zoo, but were eventually forced into releasing the herd back into the wild as there were fears that the stress of the procedure could prove to be fatal for the animals.
