CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has directed the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) to pass within three months appropriate order on a representation on overpopulation of deer in the civic body’s park in Madhusudan Nagar area on Mahanadi riverbanks.
The deer park had come up with a dozen deer in the 1980s. It has now over 175 deer population spread over two and a half acre. The regulation permits three to five deer in one acre.
One Rabeya Tabassum had filed a petition seeking intervention against inaction on her representation to the CMC Commissioner to release excess deer in the wild or hand them over to a recognised zoo.
Responding to the petition, the single judge bench of Justice BR Sarangi said, “Considering the limited grievance of the petitioner, without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, this Court disposes of the writ petition directing the CMC Commissioner to consider the representation filed by the petitioner with consultation of the Forest department and pass appropriate order in accordance with law within a period of three months.”
Overpopulation at the deer park has been an unresolved issue ever since the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) flagged it in 2009 and asked the civic body to relocate the excess animals. While the CZA had cancelled recognition to the deer park several times and renewed it on CMC’s appeal for grant of more time to deal with the excess animals, the civic body had planned a second deer park in the city.
But the project has been a non-starter so far. Lack of coordination between the district administration and CMC in identification and allotment of suitable land within the municipal corporation area has delayed the second deer park project, it has been alleged.