The conflict between the deer and the dog populations on the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras campus has reached new proportions.
According to the biodiversity report prepared over a decade ago, the campus had 12 blackbucks and around 155 chital — spotted deer. Their population has increased significantly since then.
Meanwhile, the population of dogs has also increased on the campus, threatening the survival of the deer population. The institute attributes several reasons to the increase in the dog population.
Officials say new sets of dogs are released into the campus. There is no way to relocate the existing dogs, they add.
A runner who uses the institute’s facilities says he has been spotting more pedigree dogs on campus of late. “Earlier there were community dogs but the newer dogs are more ferocious,” he says.
Students have no count of the deer, but estimate that the campus has around 100-120 dogs. Dog lovers among students claim that all animals are neutered and there are restrictions on feeding the dogs.
New guidelines
“We cannot feed the dogs where people walk. We cannot feed or keep them as pets in hostels. We understand it, but everyday a new guideline is being released and student conservationists also warn us,” a student lamented.
Dog lovers claim that their inquiry with the Forest Department had revealed that none of the deer on the campus had died of dog attacks and that construction activity on campus was to be blamed for the lack of space for deer.
A group of students who support conservation of wildlife on campus say feral dogs attack the fawns and kill them, putting a question mark over the future of blackbucks, for whom the campus is an original habitat. At one point, the security staff were protecting the fawns from the dogs, but no longer.
IIT-M director Bhaskar Ramamurthy said the number of deer lost on campus was startling.
“In the last two months, we lost six and eight deer respectively, all to dog bites, certified by the Forest Department. We send every carcass for post-mortem,” he said.
Evidence of pack behaviour
“I cannot do anything, as people connected with the Animal Welfare Board have shown me the law book and told me that they will file a case if I touch the dogs,” he rued.
According to him, the institute has gathered video and pictorial evidence of dogs exhibiting pack behaviour, which was alarming.
Before 2012, the institute would relocate some dogs periodically to maintain the balance on the campus, he said suggesting that the court could relook at the institute’s predicament.
