A call for urgent action: Analysing the "drop in deer deaths" this year

[Gayathri Nayar]

Dear all:

    I hoped to bring the recent news article (linked at the end of this message) about this year's significantly fewer deer deaths on campus to our campus community's attention, and analyse the information in that article.

    The news report says that an RTI reply sought from the Wildlife Warden of Guindy National Park reveals that deer deaths in the campus have declined this year by 64 percent from 2017. (The report also erroneously mentions that an RTI had revealed the numbers of chital and blackbuck on campus last year to be 372 and 32, respectively, whereas that data was actually from the year 2014.) There is other RTI data from the Forest Department, which revealed that 220 chital had died during the years 2014-16. 

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On the true cause of the deer deaths:

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There is sufficient evidence from the testimonies of our Security staff and the Forest Department's data that the overwhelming number of these deaths were due to predator attacks. The RTI activist, Mr. Antony Rubin, is of the opinion that the continued ingestion of plastic by the deer on campus has led to the deer becoming dull, lethargic and therefore more vulnerable to predators. 

While this is surely true to a degree, I am aware of RTI data from the Raj Bhavan and Vandalur Zoo, which show a similar marked decline of deer populations there due to haemorrhaging (bleeding) and such other injuries, which almost always indicate deaths due to predation. The later recovery or stabilization of the deer populations in those habitats would seem to suggest that the authorities there had brought the predation under control.

This may cast doubt on the assessment cited in the article- that plastic ingestion was the common root cause, even of deer deaths due to predation, on our campus- because plastic ingested from urban waste is unlikely to have contributed to the many deaths from predation in those two sparsely populated habitats. Therefore, let us now call a spade precisely that, and acknowledge, in consensus, that predation is indeed the predominant contributor to deer deaths here, which should be immediately managed, on a contingency footing.

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Analysing the present observed decline in deer deaths:

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I had estimated several months ago that there were over 200 chital and about 20 blackbuck on campus at the beginning of 2018, based on known death rates and informal data from our wildlife caretaker for deer fertility rates. I learnt later that the number of blackbucks, at least, was fairly accurate then. A census would be necessary to assess chital population count, which I suspect may have fallen even lower than that estimate.

As the blackbucks fall under the most protected category under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and to comply with the orders of the NGT last year, we have made great efforts to protect the blackbucks on campus from predation this year, by assigning staff for constant supervision of their small herds to ward off predators, and predictably, their population is now reported to be healthy and recovering. 

Alas, the same cannot be said of the chital. Even casual observers would not have failed to notice that their numbers have declined dramatically in recent times. During this year, as mentioned before, it seems to me that significantly fewer than my old estimate of 200 deer remain on campus now. I even wondered whether (if my informal observations are to be believed) the chital have, sadly, "given up", and are breeding less. There is no reason to believe that the numbers of hunting dogs on campus have declined. Therefore, the 64% decline in the deer deaths this year, far from being a reason for optimism, is in fact, more likely a symptom of the very worst news- that there were so many less deer to be killed.

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The urgent need for solution, and Proposed steps to Solution:

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We are a well-knit, well-administered, and well-educated community. The world over, loss of wildlife in wilderness habitats is a rampant problem, as evidenced in studies like this one, which estimates that the Earth has lost about 60% of its wild vertebrates over the last 40 years:

https://www.sciencealert.com/world-wildlife-fund-for-nature-has-published-its-2018-living-planet-report/amp

We know that our deer are dying, and we know why, and we understand the importance of environment and biodiversity, and of compassion too.

Furthermore, we can understand that the problem should first be assessed correctly and then resolved by implementing the following steps:

1. Having a deer census urgently conducted on campus, and

2. By creating barriers at the campus entry points to prevent infusion of stray dogs from outside (and to increase the legal supportability of future measures, like targeted/ selective relocation, to control predator numbers here).

3. Identifying predatory dogs and having them adopted and homed or sheltered (not merely sponsored) either on campus or elsewhere. In cases that this cannot be achieved in the necessary timeframe, relocation would have to be considered, which would be legally more compliant with the ABC Rules if the campus was a closed territory to community dogs.

These steps have been proposed to the concerned officials already, but there appears to be an unacceptable delay in the implementation of any effective solution to the crisis of the chital population, in particular, and the problem of unsustainable predation (non-dependent on prey density) in the campus, in general. The importance of this issue cannot be underestimated by us, who are aware of the great need to conserve rich wildlife ecosystems such as ours worldwide. It would seem that in our centrally administered and connected campus community, a simple effort of will would suffice to achieve all these goals in a month or two, so that our remaining spotted deer would be safer, and their populations could be helped to recover before it is too late.

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Are we up to it? An equally important question arises: If we, who are so advantageously positioned to achieve these simple goals, cannot do this, who can? In other words, if we cannot do this, let us be prepared to watch wild animals, stories of whom we were regaled with as children, be wiped out in this same manner, due to human intrusion, ignorance, and inertia, all over the Earth. We cannot take any comfort, I think, in the idea that we had an excuse.

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The news article under discussion:

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https://www.google.co.in/amp/s/www.thenewsminute.com/article/iit-madras-claims-deer-deaths-campus-down-64pc-activists-sceptical-90513%3famp

Warm regards,

Gayathri