CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, Sept 19: The Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park, Jharkhand’s largest and most visited zoo, situated at Ormanjhi has failed to make it to the top 10 ranking list prepared by Management Effective Evaluation (MEE-ZOO) Report which was released recently.
The biological park ended up at the 17th position out of the 23 medium category zoos in the country.
Notably, the state has two other zoos as well which are Tata Steel Zoological Park in Jamshedpur and Jawaharlal Nehru Biological Park in Bokaro. They secured the 11th and 15th positions on the list respectively.
DS Srivastava, a former state wildlife board member, informed PTI that animal health is being compromised in the Ormanjhi zoo as there is no veterinary assistant nor a pathologist.
“There is only one veterinarian for the entire zoo. There is neither a veterinary assistant nor a pathologist. If the regular veterinarian goes on training or leaves, there is no one to look after the animals,” he said.
Notably, the Ormanjhi zoo has around 1,450 animals of 83 different species of mammals, reptiles and birds. In March this year, all foxes in the zoo died due to the highly-contagious canine distemper virus (CDV).
Moreover, the report prepared by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) raised several issues concerning Birsa zoo such as the lack of a master plan, disaster management plan, health advisory committee, captive breeding of animals and landscape management.
However, Birsa zoo director Jabbar Singh told PTI that the biological park did not do well in some categories such as procedural delay on the master plan or health advisory committee.
“But the report doesn’t have any negative comment on animal health and their upkeep. During the evaluation at the zoo, the evaluators said it was one of the best zoos in the country in terms of animal health and upkeep,” Singh informed PTI.
Moreover, on the zoos of Jamshedpur and Bokaro, the report said that they need to mobilise additional funds and adequate staff, while improving hygiene.
The Central Zoo Authority evaluated all the zoos based on different parameters such as management and effectiveness and was given marks after that.
Notably, there are a total of 147 recognised zoos in India categorised as large (17), medium (23), small (33), mini (60) zoos and rescue centres (14). 39 zoos from large and medium categories were evaluated in this phase. Moreover, all biological parks of Jharkhand fall in the ‘medium’ category.
