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.
Following its closure, there were proposals and plans by the Forest Department to transform it into a rescue and rehabilitation centre for injured wildlife. However, forest officials confirmed that the land on which the deer park stood has now been ‘returned’ to the Tourism Department.
Speaking to The Hindu, a top forest official said that the land on which the deer park had been set up belonged to the Tourism Department and had been leased to the Forest Department to set up the park to attract tourists to the areas surrounding the Ooty Lake and Boat House.
“Now that the park has been closed, there was a request to return the land, which has been implemented,” said the official.
However, conservationists have criticised the move, stating that a rescue and rehabilitation centre for injured wildlife should have been immediately set up either at the deer park, or in another area controlled by the Forest Department. “Following the operation to capture the MDT23 tiger, an animal that had killed numerous people in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in 2022, an announcement was made that a rescue and rehabilitation centre would be set up to treat injured wildlife. However, the plans still remain on paper, and no steps have been taken. Such facilities are extremely important especially as the number of negative human-animal interactions in the Nilgiris are on the rise,” said N. Sadiq Ali, founder of the Wildlife and Nature Conservation Trust.
