Delhi's Deer Park To 'Close' Due to 'Overcrowding', Will Become Protected Forest

The deer will be shifted to forest areas in Delhi and Rajasthan.

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The lush green Deer Park situated in South Delhi is all set to shut down.

Details: In its recent order, the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) cancelled the recognition of the A N Jha Deer Park as a 'mini zoo', according to a report by The Indian Express.

• The 55-year-old park has been a huge attraction for deer spotting, photoshoots, etc in the national capital.

• The deer (nearly 600) in the park will be shifted to forest areas in Delhi and Rajasthan.

Why is it closing? The CZA ,in its order, blamed overcrowding as the reason. It reportedly said that the deer population had grown unchecked over the years because of the absence of a natural predator.

• The initial proposal in 2022 was to transfer all the deer to forest areas in Rajasthan.

• However, early this year, the CZA decided that some of the deer would be moved to Delhi’s Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary.

What now? The park, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) will be maintained as protected forest.

• On the reason behind the closure, a senior DDA official told The Indian Express that DDA officials have not been trained to handle large numbers of deer population.

Meanwhile, a senior forest department official said that it is now the breeding season for animals and the deer will be moved after it – winter or after winters.

Moreover, a Rajasthan forest department official told the publication that the deer will be moved to reserve areas including the Mukundra and Ramgarh-Vishdhari tiger reserves for "prey-base augmentation."

(With inputs from The Indian Express.)