Hauz Khas deer park is a mess

Surojit Mahalanobis / TNN / Jul 22, 2005, 22:30 IST

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NEW DELHi: A beautiful green park that has been a jewel in the crown of Delhi is slowly turning into a stinking cesspool.

NEW DELHI: Like proverbial sitting ducks, ganders at Hauz Khas Deer Park were stationary in an inch-deep water of the duck-pool on Thursday. Were they waiting to be lifted and poached? About 30 of them had nothing to dip into and peck from underwater moss as most of the duck-pool was dry. No swimming was possible.
At a corner section of the duck-pool, water was about six-inch-deep stagnant - polluted by rotten leaves and polythene bagfuls of waste.Ganders were not venturing there, apparently there was nothing to peck into.
Water supply through large hose pipes is plenty, but most often leaked, spraying water like a fountain, not within the pool.
Motley ducks could be seen comforting under a tree in the cool of soil. Life was easy there for them than the duck-pool.

About half an acre away in the raised 16.50 acre enclosure were deers. Spotted and huddling, most hadn't grown horns. Some older ones had become one-horned for reasons untold. Many deers are very young, which proves captive breeding takes place, albeit amid frowns from the Central Zoo Authority.
Asked separately five gardeners said, "There are 300 deers in the enclosures." But the park's deputy director Om Pal Singh insisted, "The number is 207 only." Can fudging of numbers be ruled out?

The deers have nothing to eat. Other than...
...at fixed timings, when their meals are served, deers browse everything that come their way. A group was found near the fence, craning their necks and sniffy noses into bushes across the enclosure, desperately trying to steal bites.
Singh said he wrote to his DDA bosses about a week back seeking permission to visit Haryana chief wildlife warden's office to arrange shifting of 175 deers in Haryana jungle locales. Following the CZA closure of the park about three years back, most deers have to be shifted on health grounds. The matter was hanging fire ever since.
The DDA wants to construct a hotel at adjacent district park in a highland of a pool there. Singh denies knowledge of any DDA plan. However, insiders are agog with cheeky talks about a deal, not finalised though.
The park houses a restaurant, Balluchi, a favourite night-spot for many Delhi-based foreigner diners, across the deer enclosure. The authority asked it to vacate after expiry of leased years. But the Balluchi owners have taken the DDA to court.
According to insiders, the DDA wants to develop tourism there by merging the deer park, adjacent district park and the rose garden, about 180 acre expanse. Though Singh and DDA mandarins refuse to speak on the plan, insiders said the Balluchi owners, who reportedly are doing roaring business, have an eye on the spot too.

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