The News Minute: Chennai: Monday, June 26, 2017.
A fawn, a
young deer in its first year, was found dead inside the IIT-Madras campus after
a speeding vehicle allegedly hit the animal on Saturday night. Forest officials
visited the spot after the institute informed them.
Antony Rubin,
honorary animal welfare officer of Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), told
The News Minute, “Around 10:30pm, the fawn was hit by the vehicle and I was
informed about the incident by the students of the institute by 11pm. I have
been told that the security guards caught the driver of the vehicle which hit
the fawn and informed the forest officials immediately.”
However,
Antony says that no action has yet been taken against the driver of the
vehicle. “Strict action must be taken against the driver as the fawn comes
under Schedule-I animal under the
This is not
the first time such an incident is happening inside the IIT-Madras campus.
“Last night’s incident just proves that road accidents have been happening at
large. There are no speed-breakers and there are too many speedy vehicles
inside the campus,” said Antony Rubin.
Forest
officers could not be reached for a comment.
Antony Rubin
had filed an RTI on April 6, 2017, questioning the number of deaths of deer and
blackbucks in the campus. "It was quite shocking. 220 deer and 8
blackbucks had died between 2014 and 2016 but nobody has even made a noise about
it. As far as cause of deaths are concerned, only one death has been attributed
to an accident," he had earlier told TNM.
He had also
filed a petition to the National Green Tribunal, in which he had asked for a
complete ban on non-recyclable plastics in the IIT campus, shifting of
‘Shaastra’, ‘Saarang’ and other events to outside the campus since they draw a
large crowd inside IIT-M.
In the
petition marked the State of Tamil Nadu, IIT-M, Greater Chennai Corporation,
Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board and the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, he has
also highlighted the “Various negligent human activities including improper
disposal of solid waste, speeding vehicles within IIT-M.”