Zoo with a view

The BMC has allocated Rs 25 crore this year to give the city’s only zoo at Byculla a complete makeover — cages and shackled animals will be replaced by wildlife enclosures and botanical gardens.

Pandurang Mhaske

The BMC’s budgetary provision for the city’s only zoo is all set to turn Veermata Jijabai Udyan into a tourist attraction of international standards.

BMC’s annual budget for 2005-06 has a provision of Rs 25 crore for the modernisation of the zoo and the administration plans to spend around Rs 100 crore over the next three years for the same. “We not only want the zoo to be a safe haven for animals but also a centre of entertainment as well as awareness and education about wildlife,” said R A Rajiv, additional municipal commissioner.

In July this year, the BMC had invited offers or expressions of interest to prepare the master plan of the zoo makeover. Prominent foreign zoos and foreign consulate offices in Mumbai were also intimated about the plans.

Expressions of interest have already been received from Bernard, Harrison & Friends Ltd, Singapore; Zoological Society of London; STUP Consultants Pvt Ltd USA in association with three other companies in USA; HKS Designer and Consultant International Co Ltd, Thailand; Jain Associates, Gurgaon, India; The Designer, Mumbai; and R S Bhaduria, Lucknow.

The plan to be prepared by the selected consultant will have to be approved by the Central Zoo Authority, a statutory body of the Ministry of Environment and Forest.

THE PLAN

The zoo will have enclosures for the animals and a beautiful botanical garden. The animal cages will be done away with. The enclosures will resemble the animal’s natural habitat so that it can move around inside it freely, said Rajiv.

“We will also ensure that the animals are not bothered by people watching them inside these enclosures. There will be a mandatory distance between the wild animal and visitors to the zoo so that people do not tease or feed them easily,” added Rajiv.

THE ZOO TODAY

Veermata Jijabai Udyan, formerly known as Victoria Garden, was established in 1862 by the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India.

Despite being a botanical garden, a section of the garden was converted into a zoo.

The garden has a splendid green cover of various rare varieties of plants. Presently, the zoo houses 212 mammals of 21 species, around 400 birds of 41 species and 54 reptiles of 10 species. It also has a veterinary clinic.

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