PTI News -The Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has decided to shut down two big deer parks in it plant sites at Chandrapura and Maithon

The Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has decided to shut down two big deer parks in it plant sites at Chandrapura and Maithon respectively for different reasons.

Stating this on Monday, DVC soil conservation and afforestation director Sanjay Kumar said the Chandrapura deer park, set up by the DVC near the the Chandrapura Thermal Power Station some 25 years ago as part of the corporation's beautification plan, had to be closed due to setting up two more units (Nos. 7 and 8).

Kumar said as the DVC did not acquire additional land for setting up the two more units raising two more units at Chandrapura, the corporation required the 7-8 hectares of land which was occupied by the deer park.

Another reason cited by Kumar was that since the deer park had about 52 spotted deer who are highly sensitive to noise and pollution, it was felt that they should be translocated from Chandrapura to another place where they would feel safe and won't be disturbed by any type of sound, noise and smoke pollution.

He said the DVC authorities wrote to the PCCF (Wildlife)-cum-chief wildlife warden, government of Jharkhand, for its suggestion on where to shift the deer. The Jharkhand government informed the DVC management that these species of animals could be translocated to the Hazaribag National Park which has adequate space to accommodate hundreds of deer and other species and entrusted the entire work to the DFO (Wildlife Division), Hazaribag.

Accepting the proposal, the DVC management approached the DFO (Wildlife Division) Hazaribag A K Mishra who said that to accommodate the 52 deer from Chandrapura park to the Hazaribag National Park it will require Rs 38 lakh for constructing fenced enclosure and providing other infrastructure for the purpose.

The DVC management accepted the proposal and handed over Rs 38 lakh to the PCCF(Wildlife) and work for setting up the required infrastructure at the Hazaribag national park would begin soon, Kumar said.

He said the animals would be translocated to Hazaribagh National Park from November next. He said in addition to Rs 38 lakh, Mishra informed the DVC authorities here that the transport cost for translocating the 52 deer from Chandrapura to Hazaribag will be about Rs 7 lakh which was accepted by the DVC.

In the second phase the DVC have also decided to close its deer park covering an area of 12.5 hectares near the Maithon Dam reservoir due to rise in deer population. The park currently has about 155 spotted deer.

Kumar said as the Maithon Deer Park is located on an island, the DVC has no other space to accomodate more deer, the corporation has decided to shift the animals to different place.

Kumar said the DVC has again written to the Jharkhand government for its suggestion in this regard.