The Damagundam reserve forest in Vikarabad district is fast turning into a killing ground for chital, or spotted deer, the Telangana state animal.
Hyderabad:The Damagundam reserve forest in Vikarabad district is fast turning into a killing ground for chital, or spotted deer, the Telangana state animal. At least six chital have been reported killed in the Damagundam forest in just the past one week, all of them falling prey to attacks by packs of stray dogs.
Some of these deer, which sought refuge in the famous Sri Ramalingeswara Swamy temple in the forest trying to escape from the dogs, were also killed there. “People come to the temple to offer prayers. But the deer come to this temple to die,” a distraught Stayananda Swami, popular as Damagundam Swami, and who runs an ashram near the temple said.
On Saturday, the carcass of c Chital stag was found in the temple’s gundam, or tank, while another deer was found taking refuge in the same water body.
“We keep informing the forest department here about the deer and they come and take away the injured animals. They do nothing else,” he said.
It is not just the state animal chital that is regularly killed in the Damagundam forest by stray dogs, even the four-horned antelopes, a Schedule I species under the Wildlife Protection Act, and listed as vulnerable by the IUCN in its Red Data Book, are killed regularly by dogs in the area, it is learnt.
This spree of attacks on deer in the forest is not something that began just a week ago. That the forest in the area had turned dangerous for deer was highlighted by Deccan Chronicle back in 2022 in the report ‘Vikarabad forests turn unsafe for state animal’.
When contacted about this, forest department officials said controlling stray dogs did not fall into their purview of work and it was for the local bodies to keep them in check. “Even then, if the dogs are caught, as per law, all anyone can do is to sterilise them, and leave them back where they are caught from. There is nothing the forest department can do,” the official said.
“Every day we see deer being chased by dogs. This has become even more after a large forest area was cleared for the Navy’s project. The number of dogs have increased as many have started to stay around the temporary colonies of labourers involved in the project. No one seems to care,” a local resident said.
“Someone should explain why deer living in city like Hyderabad get special protection like in University of Hyderabad where dogs were caught after Supreme Court orders, and why deer living in a forest are allowed to be killed by stray dogs every day,” Damagundam Swami asked.
