Even as two Central Zoo Authority (CZA) officials visited the Byculla zoo on Tuesday to see the Rs 434-crore makeover plan and conduct a field visit, NGO Save Rani Bagh Botanical Garden Committee members made an impromptu appearance to express their fear of losing the park’s exhaustive tree cover.

“We met CZA experts S K Patnaik and Rommel Mehta and also BMC officials and presented our appeal. We gave them a copy of our on-line petition which now has over 4,000 signatories,” said Hutokshi Rustomfram, a member of the committee.

She said that written statements of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), WWF-India and Sanctuary Asia, who have asked the BMC to desist from the modernisation plan, was given to the CZA officials too. The Save Rani Bagh committee discussed two issues with the experts: to protect the trees and accessibility of Rani Bagh—entry tickets to the zoo today cost Rs 2 each for children and Rs 5 each for adults but Rustomfram fears this will increase manifold after the revamp.

Taking into account the concern of the citizens, the CZA experts have asked the BMC to make the plan public as soon as they approve the final design.

The plan proposes to display inhabitants of three continents—Asia, Australia and Africa—a 3-D theatre, auditorium, aquarium, 100-car park, staff quarters, theme parks and night safaris.
During the field inspection that lasted for over three hours, Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Gardens and Recreational Grounds) Vikram Pawar and zoo superintendent V S Dande and other zoo officials took Patnaik and Mehta through the 53-acre premises, physically comparing it against the tentative makeover map.

According to R A Rajeev, additional municipal commissioner (City), this visit was imperative to finalise on the revamp plan. “Usually there is no time to discuss details. This meeting was arranged to co-relate our views and HKS Designs—the Thailand-based consultant—made a presentation,” he said.

When asked about the changes proposed in the makeover, Rajeev refused to divulge much. “They’ve advised some technical changes—like the size of enclosures, some arrangements for the elephant enclosures and so on. But they had no problem with the concept as such.”

He also mentioned CZA’s demand to keep the final plan in public domain and said, “I am completely for it, and we will be putting up the master plan on the Internet after approvals.”

This is the first visit by CZA officials and the “little changes” suggested by them will be carried out in just about two weeks after which the plan will be sent to the CZA again, Rajeev said.

Patnaik said: “The makeover plan seems good. We have suggested certain inputs that will now be incorporated. Of course, the plan is in the formation stage and there will be further discussions on it.” Agreeing that the Save Rani Bagh committee had concerns about the trees, he said, “They have a point and the developers will try their best to preserve the floral wealth of the zoo.”

Architectural expert Mehra added, “There is a limit to the architectural changes one can make in the plan. But by and large it seems to be fine.”
The CZA experts said that BMC has proposed to complete the entire makeover in three years.

Publication : IE: Section : MN; Pg : 1; Date : 31/10/07