Chennai is bursting at seams
with the ever increasing traffic and at places there are stray cattle which are
the menace …. Surprisingly in the concrete jungle, there still exist some
places where one can spot deers in Chennai.
With an explosion in the population of spotted deer or chital and
limited green cover, the animals are straying out of their natural habitat and
into danger on the streets. Guindy
National Park (GNP) the only national park within city limits, has more than thousand spotted deer and hundreds
of black bucks. As the foliage reserve in the park is insufficient for the
animals, the deer often stray outside in search of food.
A deer-vehicle collision
occurs when one or more deer and a human-operated vehicle collide on a roadway.
It can result in deer fatality, property damage, and human injury and/or death.
In 2000, of the 6.1 million lightweight motor vehicle collisions reported in
the US, 1 million involved animal-vehicle collisions. Over there, deer–vehicle
collisions lead to about 200 human deaths and $1.1 billion in property damage
every year. Deers are not entirely at
fault. Habitat fragmentation occurs when humans encroach the natural habitats
of animals. As human beings live in closer proximity to animals they are more
likely to encounter one another. Because highways are isolated points of
fragmentation, deer wander about them freely because they see little to stay
away from.
In 2011, in Chennai, as part
of the Metro Rail construction, the Forest Department translocated 40 spotted deer from the Poultry
Research Station at Nandanam, claiming it to be the first successful change of
location of deer in the country. The deer were translocated to Aringar Anna
Zoological Park and Guindy National Park, as a metro railway station was
planned at the Nandanam campus. A recent
report in The Hindu states that sighting spotted deer on the Anna University
campus, or in Kotturpuram, Adambakkam and other residential localities will
soon become a thing of the past. Thanks to the efforts of wildlife authorities,
deer found outside protected areas such as Guindy national park and the
campuses of Raj Bhavan and IIT-Madras will be translocated.
A senior wildlife officer
said these free-ranging deer fed on garbage dumped by people and, in some
areas, were fed by residents. They were also exposed to the danger of being
bitten by community dogs. In light of these issues, the authorities have
decided to translocate them, the officer said. An estimated 300 spotted deer
are found outside protected areas in a total of 30 locations within the city
limits, identified by wildlife authorities. Guindy Industrial Estate, Indra
Nagar, Thillai Ganga Nagar, Adambakkam, Tambaram Railway Colony, Kannagi Nagar,
Velachery and Kotturpuram are some of them. A proposal to translocate the deer
was sent to the government sometime ago, and it issued an order a couple of
days ago, sources in the wildlife department said. A sum of Rs. 44.73 lakh has
been sanctioned for the work, which began last week and would be completed by
March next year, said a senior wildlife officer.
Explaining the process
involved in translocating the deer, authorities said they had decided not to
use chemical tranquilisers to trap the deer. Instead, a cage would be set up
with feed inside.
For nearly a fortnight, authorities would provide feed inside
the enclosure. Once the deer gets accustomed to eating the food kept in the
enclosure, the animal would be trapped in it and transported to the protected
areas. Trapped deer would be translocated to Guindy National Park, Vandalur
zoo, Vandalur reserved forest and other nearby forest areas, according to
authorities. Already, officials have translocated nearly 60 deer from the
Ekkatuthangal, Kotturpuram and Madhya Kailash areas on a trial basis, they
added.
On a web search a newsitem
in www.northlandsnewscenter.com
revealed that Minnesota drivers odds for colliding with deer were declining,
according to new claims data from State Farm Insurance. The odds drivers will hit a deer in Minnesota
are 1 in 88 and is ranked 8th in the country for the most deer collisions
compared to 6th last year. The months a driver is most likely to collide with a
deer in Minnesota, mostly due to mating and hunting seasons are June, October,
and November. In Hawai, it is reported to
be : One in 10,281. Illinois drivers are less fortunate. Their odds are 1 in
211, a slight increase from last year, but better than the national average of
1 in 169. In West Virginia it is 1 in 39. Another report in Chicago Tribune
states that traffic fatalities drop 30 percent in Illinois. To avoid becoming a statistic, among other
actions it is recommended that drivers use high beams at night when no oncoming
traffic is present and slow down — not swerve — when spotting a deer. Also
remember that deer typically travel in groups.
The deer whistle is the most
widely studied and scrutinized form of deer-vehicle collision prevention
method. Deer whistles are products that attach to a vehicle and act as an alarm
system for deer and other wildlife. The manufacturing of deer whistle products
has emerged into a multimillion-dollar industry. Their manufacturers advertise
that ultrasound, which they say deer can hear but humans cannot is emitted as
air passes through the whistle; they are designed to be attached to the bumper of a
vehicle. When a vehicle moves faster than 35 mph, a whistle sound is induced
which is believed to ward off animals from a roadway.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
19th Sept. 2014.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)