
The Hill Palace Museum, located on the serene outskirts of Kochi city, has been a must-visit destination for tourists exploring Kerala. This historical marvel offers a glimpse into the regal legacy of the Maharajas of Kochi and tales of yore.
Renowned as Kerala’s first-ever heritage museum, it houses an extensive collection of artefacts and antiquities spanning centuries. Beyond its rich history, an all-age draw here is the deer park. However, all has not been well here.
Home to spotted and sambar deer, the park has been on the blacklist of animal lovers. It’s been often highlighted that the hapless creatures struggle for space in a setting that’s far from ideal.
“I noticed some of the deer having blood stains on their horns, while some others were limping. When asked, a caretaker said they were gasping for space and fighting over territory,” says Sreejith Sreedharan, a government official who often visits Hill Palace.
At one time, nearly 260 deer were crammed into the two-acre enclosure, leaving them restless due to limited space and the hot climatic conditions. Over time, the numbers came down.
Many of them died. Some due to natural causes, others because of diseases such as pneumonia, which killed 11 deer in 2018. Population control measures such as segregation of male and female deer also helped curb the number. But that’s no permanent solution. Currently, there are 88 spotted deer and 18 sambars.
“Managing population explosion among the spotted deer is quite a challenge,” says a forest department official.
The deer park started functioning in 1992, with just 18 deer, including eight sambar variants. However, their numbers kept rising, leading to congestion. The green cover also slowly faded as the animals stripped bark off trees, causing them to dry out.”
Taking note of the issue, the Central Zoo Authority had issued a notice to close down the enclosure in March 2016. Nearly a decade has passed, but plans for relocating the deer remain on paper.
Meanwhile, the Centre for Heritage Studies (CHS), which maintains the deer park, did take measures to make the environment more suitable for the wild creatures. “A shelter to protect the animals from heavy rain and scorching heat was set up. The soil inside the enclosure was mixed with lime, as per expert advice, to prevent diseases,” says a CHS official.
“The enclosure fencing was reinforced to prevent deer from escaping through damaged portions, as had occurred multiple times in the past. Additionally, fencing was installed around the compound wall of the palace premises to prevent the intrusion of dogs, which had previously attacked the deer.”
Despite these efforts, the enclosure is a far cry from the natural conditions deer live in. “It’s cruel to keep these animals crammed up here,” says Lekshmi C P, an animal rights activist and rescue volunteer. “Many animal lovers in the city have raised concerns over the delay in relocating the deer to their natural habitat, rather than keeping them as domesticated animals. They are wild animals – not pets.”
Why the delay?
The failure to locate a suitable space, bureaucratic delays, and the challenges of shifting the animals have proven major hurdles.
“Initially, it was the delay from the part of the forest department that prolonged the project. Though the Central culture ministry approved Rs 1 crore to relocate the deer, the forest department couldn’t identify a suitable location to shift the deer,” says a CHS official.
The forest department, which was tasked with studying the translocation of the deer population from the park to forest areas, initially submitted a report to the state government suggesting the initiative be undertaken only after identifying “proper and spacious habitat”.
“The number of deer to be shifted is huge, and the animals are known to be sensitive about their habitat,” a forest official explains.
“Hence, there is a risk of casualties if they are shifted to a new habitat suddenly. They should first be conditioned in an environment similar to forest habitats for nearly six months before being released into the wild. We have to strictly follow the standard operating procedures. This involves a lot of formalities and expenditure.”
It was first decided to shift the deer to Kokkara in the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. However, the move was abandoned due to a lack of adequate space for the animals. Later, the forest department inspected several locations and zeroed down on Kaprikkad under the Malayattoor division. But this, too, has not been finalised.
“The report from the forest department is under consideration at the secretary level. Discussions were held at the ministerial level, but a concrete decision is yet to be arrived at,” says the CHS official.
“We are awaiting directions from the government. Another option was to shift the animals to a zoo. But the authorities at Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur zoos turned down our request due to – again – the lack of space.”