India: Barely a week after a spotted deer fell prey to poachers on the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) campus, another deer was brutally killed with the chopped off head left near the Old Horticulture Garden on Tuesday evening.

It was Sathya Prakash, a faculty of the University, who saw the head of the spotted deer while he was on a walk. He took a picture of the same and alerted others apart from posting the same on Facebook. Incidentally, the head went missing when wildlife activists and students came looking for it on Wednesday morning. The search party could not locate the rest of the carcass either.

“The university authorities should set up a committee to control the killing of deer and should find out how the head, which was seen on Tuesday, went missing. We doubt the security could have buried the head,” said Jillapalli Ravi, founder of Wild Lens, a wildlife protection group based on the university campus, adding that poachers might have killed the animal and consumed it.

With several water bodies in their regular habitats going dry due to summer, many animals are straying onto the campus, which is part of the forest, in search of drinking water, he said.

“Authorities should make arrangements for drinking water for these animals deep in the forest, so that they do not stray onto the academic premises and put their lives in danger,” Mr. Ravi said.

During last summer, close to 50 spotted deer were killed by stray dogs and poachers, he said.

“Ironically, the spotted deer is the State animal and still, the university administration has not initiated any measure to save them,” he said.

The death of many deer goes unnoticed as they die in the wooded areas on the campus, he added.

(Source: Telangana Today)