4 min readNew DelhiMar 17, 2026 02:07 PM IST
First published on: Mar 17, 2026 at 08:25 AM IST
Delhi’s popular Deer Park in Hauz Khas may soon have no deer left if the Supreme Court accepts the recommendations of a panel it constituted last November over concerns of overcrowding, resource constraints, and managerial lapses.
The top court is set to hear the matter on Tuesday after a petition was filed last year by NGO New Delhi Nature Society, represented by advocates Rukhsana Choudhury and Amita Singh. The petitioner had sought a stay on the translocation of the deer from the park.
Constituted by the SC, the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), in a report submitted to the top court on March 6, has red-flagged that DDA’s AN Jha Deer Park — popularly known as Deer Park — does not provide even the bare-minimum facilities to the population it houses. While the translocation of majority of its population seems imminent, the park, which lost its ‘mini zoo’ tag in 2023 due to non-compliance to guidelines, has to ensure that it is granted the tag again by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s (MoEFCC) Central Zoo Authority (CZA) to be able to retain even just 38 deer.
Earlier this year, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), following a site inspection on January 23, conducted the first scientific assessment after 2022 for a population estimate, pegging the spotted deer breed in the park between 370 and 547.
Subsequently, the WII — in its report submitted to the CEC — highlighted that the assessment “indicates a population nearly 10 times higher than the sustainable capacity of the enclosure,” where ideally 38 deer should be housed. This goes against the CZA guidelines on ‘Minimum Dimension of Enclosures for Housing Animals of Different Species in Zoos’, it said.
“This substantial exceedance unequivocally demonstrates that the existing enclosure is severely overstocked, with significant implications for animal welfare, habitat degradation, disease transmission, and long-term population viability,” WII had reported to the CEC earlier this year.
Even as the WII calculated that the present enclosure for deer in the park of 10.26 acres should ideally be housing 38 deer, CZA, on the other hand said that the space is “suitable for approximately 50-55 deer”. Both the bodies have, however, recommended translocation of the surplus population to tiger reserves in Rajasthan.
The CEC, taking into account WII’s report, has recommended that the surplus population shall be translocated to the two tiger reserves in Rajasthan. “The aforesaid population of 38 spotted deer may continue to be maintained at AN Jha Deer Park only upon formal recognition and approval of the facility by the CZA, and strictly subject to full compliance with all conditions and prescriptions stipulated by the CZA.”
The CZA, in June 2023, had cancelled the recognition of the Deer Park and approved the translocation of approximately 600 deer to wildlife sanctuaries and tiger reserves in Rajasthan and partly to the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, Delhi. The park “time and again failed to comply” with the conditions necessary to be maintained for a ‘mini-zoo’, the CZA had underlined at the time.
In line with the directions, between September 2023 and March 2025, 261 deer were translocated from the park to Ramgarh Vishdhari Tiger Reserve (100) and Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve (161). The translocation was then halted owing to the SC’s order in November 2025.
A CZA review visit, as recently as December 2025, which finds a mention in the CEC report, indicates dismal condition at the park, The design of the deer park “does not comply with CZA guidelines”; unhygienic conditions; “absence of basic infrastructure and equipment” which compromises scientific disease diagnosis; “absence of equipments” for surgeries; “grossly inadequate” staffing with only one veterinarian and one zoo-keeper — these were the red flags raised following the visit.
Even as DDA on December 20, 2025, told the CEC that it had sufficient water availability with two water troughs within the enclosure in addition to an “artificially created water stream provided during the summer season”, CZA, in a visit to the site on December 15, 2025, had noted that of the two water points, “one was clean and full and another was undergoing repair.”
DDA has told the committee that “currently operating the zoo without a valid license” owing to “legal constraints imposed imposed by judicial stay order by Hon’ble Supreme Court on the translocation of deer and cancellation of recognition by CZA” is a challenge for the body and has flagged that this issue needs to be “addressed.”
The petitioner had sought a stay on the translocation of the deer from the park. (Express Photo) 
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