TRIPUNITHURA: Eight deer died at Tripunithura Hill Palace deer park, sparking widespread protest by animal lovers regarding the functioning of the congested park.“The eight deer (four sambar deer and four spotted deer) died in the congested cage and all these deaths occurred in last one week due to intensified monsoon,” said Dinesh E, registrar of Centre for Heritage Studies, CHS) the caretaker of deer park.“With the onset of monsoon, some deer started to show dizziness in last week,” Dinesh said. Four sambar deer (two among them aged and two toddlers) and four spotted deer, all aged, died within four days. “Seeing their condition, we have sought the medical support of government veterinary surgeon from Thiruvankulam and with her prescription we have started to give medicine to the remaining deer ,” Dinesh said. There are a total 238 deer, 38 sambar deer and 200 spotted deer in the park.Senior veterinary surgeon from Thiruvananthapuram Zoo had visited to diagnose the root cause of the death of the animals."At first, we suspected foot and mouth disease was the cause of sudden death of deer,” Dinesh said.However, with the visit of senior veterinary surgeon from Thiruvananthapuram, we came to know that the disease is a routine health disorder resulted due to extreme climatic changes caused due to intensified monsoon.The surgeon also said that the same is happening in other zoos in the state.“For the past one decade, requests are flowing from CHS to relocate these hapless deer folks from this congested cage to either Idukki or Thekkady forest reserve,” said Job Thannikkot, a local resident.“It was nearly three decades ago the then museum authorities had decided to open the deer park,” Job said. Interestingly, the deer park was later merged with CHS.Five years ago, central forest ministry had cancelled the licence of this deer park. State forest department had also issued an order to relocate the deer to a natural habitat.“But the move was delayed all these years because of the lack of technical knowhow and insufficient fund,” said Dinesh.The Zoo Authority of India had directed the state forest department to close the facility as it was functioning in violation of the guidelines. The animals cannot be directly released to the wild as several protocols will have to be observed for its release to the wild, said Dinesh.Transferring the animals from one location to other is risky as causalities can occur while tranquilising and transporting the animals, said Dinesh.

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