Saving The Deer Park

When Campaign For Differently Abled and New Delhi Nature’s Society together went to the Delhi High Court to save the Deer Park, our intention was twofold: a. To minimize the number of Deer being moved out of the Deer Park We first wanted to understand, what was pushing the DDA to shift the deer and give away the mini zoo status? The same DDA had been managing the deer park and the deer enclosure for decades without any reported deaths due to deer congestion. It was only in the last few years that DDA started expressing its intention, through the media, to give away its mini zoo status claiming poor maintenance due to lack of competency at its end. While we agreed that deer population should be reduced but by how much was the contention and obviously the mini zoo status had to be there. The citizens of Safdarjung Enclave, Green Park and the entire city of Delhi only have the deer park apart from the Zoo where children can experience a deer. In a changing world where children are getting more and more involved with technology, human-nature interaction is essential for developing sensitivity and understanding of their surrounding flora and fauna. A city which is losing its green area at an increasing pace, It was imperative for us to stand up and we did. The court itself initially agreed on a 50+ Deer should be at least retained which came down to 24 in the final order. Based on the Deer population growth, Why couldn’t the court set up a process of movement of a certain number of deer every 2-3 years instead of moving a batch of 200 in December 2023 with a plan to move 376 more Deer in Sept 2024. (https://www.hindustan times.com/cities /delhi-news/ shifting-of-deer-from-delhi-s-deer-park-likely-by-monthend-101725730848716.html) b. To ensure that Delhi Deer stay in Delhi The biggest factor was that Delhi still had enough green areas where these Deer could be left in the open. Second reason was that the animal who have lived in captivity in a certain habitat mostly do not survive if their habitat is suddenly changed. The DDA has already shifted 200 deer to Kota, Rajasthan with no reports of how many have survived? Based on innumerable zoological studies, the DDA should not be permitted to move the deer outside Delhi especially to open jungles or an absolutely different habitat. A recent announcement by Noida authority to setup a Noida bio-diversity park where they will need to bring in Deer has given the DDA a near perfect space for relocation of Deer. The same needs to be taken up by DDA instead of sending captive deer to open jungles in Rajasthan. (https://timesofindia. indiatimes.com/city/noida/noida-biodiversity-park-to-introduce-deer-enclosure-for-conservation/articleshow/111415641.cms) In the final judgment, we have managed to ensure that the mini zoo status stays. Change of land use status would have sounded the death knell for the deer park. The court has ordered the retention of 2 dozen deer which should surely go up to at least 100 deer and it goes without saying that Delhi needs more habitats like the Deer park and not closure of this much needed space.