LUCKNOW: As many as 21 deer, including 20 Cheetals (spotted deer) and a Chinkara, were mauled to death allegedly by a pack of stray dogs at Anand Kanan Birla House in Chhatnag area of Prayagraj late on Monday night.
After keeping the incident under wraps for two days, the forest authorities got the autopsy of the animals done and confirmed the incident to the media persons only on Wednesday morning.
While a case was registered under provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act against the private firm-- Universal Cable Company Limited-- looking after the animals, three persons, including a security officer and a deer keeper, were detained by the officials of the forest department on Thursday for interrogation
as part of the probe into the killing of deer.
As per the local sources, the deers were being reared on 70-acre guest house of Birla House on the banks of River Ganga. The Birla House has got the permission for deer rearing from the Forest Department in 1988. However, Universal Cable Company Limited was entrusted with taking care of deer in the guest house.
The initial probe by the Forest officials pointed finger at private firm’s alleged lax attitude which led to the incident, said the sources adding that the firm was also served a notice.
While it was not clear how the pack of stary dogs got into the premises where the deers were reared, it was suspected that two small drain openings could be the entry point for the canines. However, the probe authorities were not ruling out the possibility of dogs crossing the boundary wall by jumping through it to
reach the rangale of deers.
As per Prayagraj District Forest Officer (DFO) Mahaveer Kaujalgi, three persons -- Awadesh Kumar (security Officer), Lal Chandra Yadav (deer keeper) and Jung Bahadur (security guard) – were detained by forest officials for interrogation.
The DFO also added that the forest department had registered a case against four persons including manager, security officer, deer keeper and security guard of the private firm -- universal cable company limited -- responsible for deer care under Section 9 of Wildlife Protection Act.