R Gurusamy, a 70-year-old resident of Pudupalayam in Avinashi, has been letting the spotted deer graze on 45 acres of his land in the hamlet for over 20 years. According to unofficial estimates, this has helped the area’s deer population grow from 400 to over 1,200. He always love animals, being a farmer and a nature enthusiast.
As part of our ancestral property, he received this plot of land beside the Khousikha River. He discovered a few of spotted deer strolling along the riverbanks one day while farming here in 1996. Later, the deer joined his cattle and started grazing on his pasture. They eventually started hanging out with his goats and cows.
As the deer were a rare sighting in our community, he began permitting them to stay on his pasture. Because they ate largely grass, which is available all year, the pasture gradually became their habitat. Moreover, the deep thickets on his farm protected them from rain and sun, Gurusamy explained. The deer are thought to have come from Coimbatore and followed the dried-up riverbed.
When water became limited due to drought, Gurusamy excavated trenches and filled them with water. Because they had no natural predators to hunt them, the creatures multiplied in abundance and began to invade surrounding farmland.
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