Chased by langurs, deer falls off hill in Mumbai

This is the second spotted deer death in 24 hours in the city. There are 2,500 to 3,000 spotted deers in and around SGNP.

A day after a female spotted deer was killed in a road accident at Goregaon on the Western Express Highway (WEH), another one was found dead on the fringes of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) at Mulund (West).

According to local residents, the four-year-old female spotted deer was being chased by a group of langurs when she fell off a hill. (HT File)

According to local residents, the four-year-old deer was being chased by a group of langurs when she fell off a hill. On getting a distress call, members of non-governmental organisation (NGO) Plants and Animals Welfare Society (PAWS- Mumbai) rushed to the spot at Shankar Tekdi, Amar Nagar in Mulund (West). A rescue team from SGNP had also reached the spot.

“The SGNP rescue team took the body to the national park for further investigation and postmortem. We learnt from locals that this deer was separated from its herd and chased by a group of langurs. Without realising that it had reached the edge of the hill, it fell from a great height and tumbled to its death,” said Sunish Subramaniam Kunju, secretary, PAWS-Mumbai.

Read: Deer dies in accident on Mumbai’s western express highway; auto driver injured

Officials from the forest department could not confirm what led to the death, but ensured that the body was taken to SGNP for a post-mortem.

This is the second spotted deer death in 24 hours in the city. There are 2,500 to 3,000 spotted deers in and around SGNP.

On Friday morning around 2am, an autorickshaw driver hit a deer on the western express highway (WEH) in Goregaon east. The deer was taken to SGNP where it succumbed to the injuries.

SGNP veterinarians conducted a post-mortem of the animal around 5pm on Saturday. “The cause of death was revealed as mechanical injury (injury cause by physical violence to the body) that led to fractured rib and internal hemorrhage in the animal’s chest cavity leading to hypovolemic shock (rapid blood loss) and death,” said Dr Shailesh Pethe, veterinarian, SGNP.