Jamshedpur, Feb. 22: Evaluation and monitoring officer of Central Zoo Authority (CZA) Brij Kishore Gupta, on Wednesday inspected Tata Steel Zoological Park. He reviewed the compliance of guidelines prescribed by the apex body for conditional recognition.
Gupta took stock of the facilities for animals on the premises and collected data on animals and their health situation during his nearly three-hour visit to the private zoo. Tata zoo vet Dr Manik Palit, curator Sanjay Mahto and biologist Seema Rani accompanied the CZA official during his visit.
Gupta also spent half an hour at the zoo clinic and saw facilities at the operation theatre and post-mortem department. He saw all the 28-odd animal enclosures, including the ones housing hyenas, crocodile, bear and deer.
The CZA official asked the zoo administration to install barricades for preventing visitors from coming close to the zoo clinic. He also suggested raising the railings of the enclosure of Capuchin monkey. �I have collected the data and will prepare a report. I inspected various facilities. It will be too early to say anything on the compliance front,� Gupta. He, however, added that compliance was slow.
Gupta who along with deputy director (retd) of Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad M Navin Kumar had visited the zoo for a similar exercise in September 2012, will send his report to CZA technical committee which will route the same for approval to the chairman of the apex body, minister of state for environment, forests and climate chance Anil Madhav Dave.
The conditional recognition of Tata zoo, the largest privately-run zoo in Jharkhand, expired on December 31, 2016. CZA generally renews the recognition for a period of three years and visits zoos across the country to review the guidelines prescribed by it.
The foundation stone of Tata Zoo was laid in 1990 and its gates were opened for visitors on March, 3 1994. The zoo is nestled inside the Jubilee Park and has two wetlands on either side, the Subarnarekha River in its north and Jayanti Sarovar in south. Both these wetlands are famous for winter migratory birds.
The zoo is spread over an area of 40 hectares with beautifully landscaped gardens interspersed with small forest patches.
The prime motto of the zoo during the last two decades of its operation has been to preserve wild flora and fauna and help them propagate in captivity.
