In two separate incidents, Forest Department officials rescued two injured deer (Chitals) that strayed from the nearby jungles into two adjoining buildings, where one got stuck in an iron gate, injuring itself, in a space of six hours, here on Tuesday.
In the first incident, a scared female deer jumped onto the wall of the Grand Square Society and fell inside the building compound, injuring itself, said a resident of the building, Sandesh Yatam.
As it lay there trembling and terrified, other residents managed to get close to her and catch it before summoning the Thane Forest Department officials who came and took her away for treatment.
A few hours later, some residents of B-10 Ritu Enclave Society, adjoining the Grand Square CHS, both in Anand Nagar locality on Ghodbunder Road, saw a male deer with its head and right front leg trapped in the iron grill gate of the building compound.
They immediately alerted the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, (SGNP), Thane Forest Department and the local disaster unit for help, said Range Forest Officer (RFO) Rajendra Patil.
A team comprising Sanjay Pawar, Sandeep More, Sujay Koli, Ramakant More and others rushed to the building to find the deer injured, appearing scared and jittery.
They covered its head with a cloth and then slowly pushed it out of the iron gate's grills, calmed it, administered first-aid and then sped off in an animal ambulance to the SGNP veterinary authorities for treatment.
The male deer, around one year old, is suspected to have wandered out of the SGNP, probably looking for food and somehow got stuck in the grilled gate sometime in the early hours of Tuesday, said Patil.
The condition of both the deer is reported to be stable and improving, said an official.
This is the third instance of a deer rescue from the thickly populated urban locality of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) in the past one month.
In the early hours of May 10, a deer chased by a leopard down a hillock had crashed through the roof of a chawl in Hanuman Tekdi, near IIT-Bombay in Powai, much to surprise of the bewildered family.
The equally stunned creature was safely rescued and later released into the nearby forests.
( With inputs from IANS )