TIRUCHY: As many as 31 spotted deer at a deer park maintained by Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) in Tiruchy have died of indigestion and food poisoning over the past two days. This has brought the number of deer in the park down to 185. A team of forest officials have determined that the deaths were caused by a change in the animals’ feed. The park has been closed to visitors as a special medical team from the forest department is trying to save the remaining deer.
The deer reside in a park on the BHEL premises and are cared for by the BHEL management. On Thursday at least 20 deer fell unconscious and died. Later that day, 11 others died in the same way. Forest department officials began an investigation into the death of the mammals.
“During a primary investigation conducted by the forest officials, we conducted autopsies on all the dead deer. The BHEL recently changed the feed for the deer. They switched to Subabul for the past two weeks. The autopsies revealed that this feed has caused indigestion resulting in an infection that ended in deer dying. We are feeding pepper and salt-mixed liquids to the remaining deer, as it is hard to determine which among them have consumed the feed in such large quantities,” D Sujatha, District Forest Officer of Tiruchy, told Express.
The deer are being monitored by a four-member team of veterinarians from the forest department. As the animals’ caretakers had changed the feed without knowing it may harm the animals, no action is being taken against them. A senior BHEL official told Express that the deer were usually fed Neem leaves and grass, but the caretakers had noticed that the animals were consuming Subabul leaves from nearby trees. They assumed that the deer liked the leaves and therefore changed the feed two weeks ago.
Change in feed proves deadly
According to a senior official at BHEL, the deer were usually fed neem leaves and grass. However, two weeks ago the caretakers changed the feed to Sububul leaves on finding the animals’ nibbling at the leaves of the trees at the park. This proved fatal for the animals.