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Pilkhuwa hospital has an early morning visitor - a barasingha
Ghaziabad: The staff and patients at JD Hospital in Pilkhuwa were in for an early morning surprise Monday. They had a visitor outside of visiting hours — one whom
Ghaziabad: The staff and patients at JD Hospital in Pilkhuwa were in for an early morning surprise Monday. They had a visitor outside of visiting hours — one whom they were the least prepared to welcome.
A full-grown swamp deer barged into the hospital around 2am Monday in a bid to save itself from chasing stray dogs. The entire incident was captured on CCTV cameras installed at the hospital, but the information was not given to the divisional forest department.
The hospital officials said the incident took place about 1.45am Monday. They heard the noise of window glass shattering and rushed out various cubicles and rooms to see what was happening. To were stunned to see a barasingha (swamp deer) inside the hospital.
The petrified animal looked around for about two minutes, spotted another glass door ahead of it and was quick to break through that door to make good its escape.
The CCTV cameras of the hospital captured the entire incident. “The animal had barged inside after breaking through the main glass door. It came inside and roamed around. We tried to shoo the animal away and patients and their relatives too were shocked to see the deer inside. Some people asked us to catch the animal, but our staff members decided to leave it alone. After about two minutes, the animal went to the other door and jumped outside after breaking through the glass panels,” Preety Sharma, coordinator of the hospital, said.
“The CCTV footage show that some stray dogs were chasing the animal and it came inside the hospital . No one was hurt during the incident and the animal itself moved out. Since the animal went away, we did not inform the police or the forest department officials,” she said.
The divisional forest department officials, on the other hand, denied having any information about the incident but said the sighting of swamp deer in the town area of Pilkhuwa is rare.
“Generally, the Hastinapur sanctuary, which is about 30km from Pilkhuwa, has some swamp deer. The last sighting of one was in one of the villages in Garhmukteshwar on December 17, when the animal had entered a pond. At that time, we only guided it to come out of the water and allowed it to move away on its own. It is not possible that the same animal had stayed this long and ventured into the hospital in Pilkhuwa,” Diksha Bhandari, divisional forest officer, Hapur district, said.
HT Monday appraised the divisional forest officer about the incident through CCTV footage of the JD Hospital.
“The swamp deer is listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act. The animal seen in the CCTV from Pilkhuwa hospital is a swamp deer, a barasingha, and easily identifiable by its antlers. We did not receive any information about the animal entering the hospital. However, it is a docile animal. It may suffer a cardiac arrest if it is caught. So, generally, it is advised to refrain from attempts to catch the animal. We will seek information about the incident from the hospital authorities,” she said.
