Of the three subspecies of the swamp deer in India, just about a thousand individuals of the eastern swamp deer (Rucervus duvaucelii ranjitsinhii) are left in a single population in Kaziranga. Apart from this, a tiny population also exists in Manas, the remnants of a once thriving population before civil strife hit the area and wiped out most of its wildlife. These deer are faced with a far more urgent threat than India’s rhinos, tigers or elephants.
WTI’s Eastern Swamp Deer Conservation Project seeks to establish a viable population of the subspecies in Manas National Park. In December 2014, the first batch of 19 eastern swamp deer, captured in Kaziranga, were released into a predator-proof boma constructed at Manas, completing the first-ever mass capture and translocation of any large ungulate in India. A second batch of 17 deer were translocated in February 2017. Deer from both batches were released into the wild a few months after translocation.
