Pune: In two separate incidents, a six-year-old male Sambar deer and a civet were saved from drowning by officials of the Forest Department and Wildlife SOS team.
As per information given by the officials of Wildlife SOS, a male Sambar deer was found trapped inside a 25-foot-deep well in Vanewadi, near Junnar, Maharashtra.
On finding the deer in danger, the locals in the area immediately requested the Forest Department for help, who in turn further reached out to Wildlife SOS team at the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Center in Junnar for assistance. A five-member team of trained rescuers from the NGO expedited a two-hour long journey to reach the location.
After an assessment of the situation, the terrified deer was first mildly tranquilised and then safely extricated from the deep well with the help of a harness. It took almost two hours for the team to safely conduct the rescue operation. The adult deer was deemed medically fit to be released back into its natural habitat.
Dr Ajay Deshmukh, Senior Veterinary Officer at the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre, said, “The six-year-old Sambar deer was distressed in its struggle to stay afloat. Thankfully, the deer displayed no external injuries and hence was deemed fit and released back into the wild.”
Kartick Satyanarayan, CEO and Co-founder Wildlife SOS said, “Wildlife SOS’ team, in the past 15 days, has rescued a wild sloth bear, a leopard, and an Indian civet from drowning in uncovered wells. We must work closely with the local communities to address this problem before it escalates and becomes a threat to human lives as well.”
In another incident, an Indian civet cat was rescued from drowning in a 20-foot deep well in Khamgaon village, Junnar, Maharashtra. The civet was extricated from the well with the help of a transport cage and was released back into the wild once deemed fit.
Ajit Shinde, Range Forest Officer, Junnar, said, “The operation was undertaken with immense caution to evade any injuries to the deer. We applaud the work carried out by the Wildlife SOS team and look forward to working together for better management of man-animal conflict situations.”
