Chennai’s naturalists and environmentalists were recently shocked to read a news item that was headlined: ‘500-bed hospital planned on Raj Bhavan campus.’ This campus is part of the abode of the endangered Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) in Chennai and its environs.

To quote the newspaper: ‘... “Governor Surjit Singh Barnala has, in principle, agreed to allot a place on the vast Raj Bhavan campus. We have started discussions on the exact planning to build the hospital. Only 300 beds are required to start a first year MBBS course, but we are planning for the future,” Vice-Chancellor Mayilvahanan Natarajan said.’

To have a hospital in an already dwindling and fragile ecosystem is surely a matter of concern. This once continuous stretch of the woodland, dominated by tropical dry evergreen plant species, has already been fragmented to provide space to quite a few memorials and institutions over the past decades. As far as the protection of this ecosystem is concerned, we can confidently say that the Guindy National Park (GNP) is well protected. But the IIT’s forest cover has been shrinking – yielding to new buildings and other infrastructure. Not many of us know the status of the flora and fauna of the Governor’s campus.

Now the Raj Bhavan, IIT and Guindy National Park, though separated by fences, still have a sizable number of Blackbuck population and a good number of the ubiquitous Spotted Deer. While the deer population has been on the rise, the antelope’s population has been plunging. Though the Spotted Deer and the Blackbuck share the same land area, they prefer different habitats. While the former is comfortable in dense forests and bush thickets, the latter prefers to be in open grasslands, dotted with tall grass and bushes. Besides, they keep moving from one campus to another.

But over the years, the open grasslands of this ecosystem, particularly in the IIT area, have been utilised as sports grounds and for construction of hostels. The website: http://hsb.iitm.ac.in/~prakriti/protectblackbuck.html has this to say:

• Most of the open areas have been used for construction without realising that Blackbuck require open areas and private space for rearing the young (one cannot expect Blackbuck to deliver or nurse the fawn in stadium or lawns or where people move around).

• Loss of one of their original and favourite areas, like the erstwhile NCC ground (converted into a First Division cricket ground, fenced).

• Destruction of native wild plants, grass and herbs without realising their role in sustaining a species like Blackbuck by creating lawns or just by clearing plants annually.

• Introduction of non-edible, exotic grass species, sprayed with pesticides in the name of lawns, is shrinking vital space of the Blackbuck further.

• Fencing of available natural, open areas and creation of concrete parking spaces in many small open areas which used to be Blackbuck food sources.

These changes in the ecosystem impacted negatively on the Blackbuck and their numbers declined. Realising this, the IIT authorities took measures to ease the situation. In an interview to The Hindu of April 22, 2010, Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Dean (Planning), said that a few years ago the Blackbuck population on campus had come down significantly. “We found out that the fences around the classroom and hostel zones were the main reason for the decline. When chased by local dogs at night, the bucks ran into the fence and were trapped. The dogs bit them resulting in their death. The authorities then removed the fences. There were only 13 black bucks on the premises before the fences were removed a couple of years back. After the fences were removed, there were no reports of blackbuck deaths due to dog bites,” he said.

The Times of India of August 3, 2010, carried an article titled, ‘Forest under seige’ where wildlife filmmaker Shekar Dattatri, and an eminent ornithologist Dr. V. Santharam have voiced serious concern. They are of the opinion that the hospital can always find a place elsewhere. The newspaper also reported “Repeated efforts were made to get in touch with Raj Bhavan authorities but no response was forthcoming.”

However, it is common sense that the Blackbuck’s continued existence in this delicate bionetwork, situated in the heart of the metro, depends on the preservation of this ecosystem. It is disheartening to note that the Governor of the State has agreed, in principle, to part with four acres of the campus for the hospital. Even if the proposed area does not support a great biodiversity, it is not difficult for any thinking individual to realise the kind of negative impact the construction and functioning of the hospital will have on the already dwindling population of the Blackbuck.