[13][15][16] The conservation status of three subspecies of Eld's deer, by country, are: The Keibul Lamjao National Park (KLNP), covering an area of 40 km2 (15.4 sq mi) of marshland called the Phumdis within the larger Loktak Lake, was gazetted in 1977 specifically to protect the Rucervus eldii eldii, the sangai in Meitei.

Over time, public awareness and local support have evolved for conserving the subspecies of the endemic endangered Elds' deer.

This fact is very somberly presented in a story form in a popular children's magazine called Chandamama, which gives a first-person symbolic narrative by the affected 'deer' itself.

The final conclusion by the deer, quoted below, concisely puts the security provided in the park in a proper perspective.

The sangai distribution dictated by shelter and availability of food is high near Toyaching, Pabotching and the Yang Kokchambi area.

[18] Censuses conducted by the wildlife wing of the Forest Department in 1975, 1990, 2000, and 2003 have shown the Eld's deer population was 14, 76, 162 and 180, respectively.

[needs update] A successful captive breeding programme is underway at the Alipore Zoological Gardens in Kolkata, and many specimens of the deer have been bred here.

Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary, with an area of 104 sq mi (269.4 km2) in Myanmar's central plains, 125 sq mi (323.7 km2) northwest of the city of Mandalay, has Indaing deciduous broadleaf forest dominated by Dipterocarpus tuberculatus and is the habitat for four species of deer: thamin, muntjac (Muntiacus muntjac), hog deer (Axis porcinus), and sambhar (Rusa unicolor).

Subject to indiscriminate hunting in the past (till the ownership of guns was controlled after the 1960s), the thamin, highly threatened, now has a population of about 1,000.

Initially, the Smithsonian National Zoo acquired a few thamin for observations and subsequently shifted a few to its Conservation and Research Center at Front Royal, Virginia for biological study.

[2][20] For a cross–check of the biological studies done at the research center, the Smithsonian Institution selected the Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary, a protected park.

Special studies on the thamin deer were conducted by the conservation scientists headed by Christen Wemmer of the Smithsonian.

They gathered details on the biology and survival of the species by duly correlating with the changes that occurred in the ecology of the region of the Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary.

Smithsonian National Zoological Park, which has been closely associated with the preservation of the thamin deer, has in its conclusive observations stated:[21] "Chatthin Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS) in Myanmar (Burma) protects the largest population of the endangered Eld's deer left in the world.

Restricting people's access to these forests by declaring them protected is probably not a sustainable solution and will put greater burden on lower income households potentially increasing poverty.

[2] In the Savannakhet Province of Laos, conservation efforts centred around community management caused the local population to increase from 80 to 170.

[2][15][16] In India, the Eld's deer sangai subspecies is confined to the peculiar floating bog called Phumdis in Loktak Lake and is numbered at less than a few hundred animals.

Their population has additionally declined due to intense development activities necessitating reclamation of land for grazing, cultivation and fish farming within their range.

In Myanmar, deforestation of the diperocarp forests is cited as a reason for the threat faced by the thamin deer.

[13] The film The Return of Sangai is a documentary by George Thengummoottil about the species in Keibul Lamjao National Park.