Spotted deer found dead in Surat, forest officials suspect dog bite killed it

The forest officials talked to the local people and found that it was for the first time such a spotted deer was sighted in the coastal area. The officials found around 12 injury marks on the hind legs of the deer, suspecting them to be caused by stray dogs. The carcass was sent to a government veterinary hospital. On Tuesday afternoon, veterinary doctors carried out the postmortem on the carcass and handed it over to forest officials for disposal.

Dr Ashok Kumbhani, assistant director at the government veterinary hospital, told The Indian Express, “We carried out a postmortem on the carcass of the spotted deer and found 12 injury marks on hind legs, these caused internal haemorrhage to the abdomen and other internal organs. There are over ten bite marks, possibly made by stray dogs, as no leopard or other animal is found in the coastal area.”

Forest officials in 2021 softly released more than seven adult deer into the deep forest area from the spotted deer breeding centre in the national park in the Dangs district.

Deputy conservator of forest (Surat), Anand Kumar, said, “During our interaction with the locals in the Dumas area, we have come to know that a flock of deer had been spotted by some in the Dumas area for the last few days. We suspect the carcass found on Monday evening could be one among them. This was for the first time a spotted deer was found in Surat. The migration source of such spotted deer is unknown, but we suspect they might have come from the Dangs forest area. Last year, such spotted deer were found in the Tapi district. We believe that they might have travelled from Dangs. We have also alerted our staffers to put an eye on the spotted deer in the coastal area.”