Mumbai rhino arrives in Delhi zoo

NEW DELHI: Shiva (38), the lone male rhino from Mumbai's Jijamata Udyaan who braved a two-day journey in a truck, reached the National Zoological Park in Delhi on Wednesday evening. Shiva has been brought to the capital so that he can mate with one of the two female rhinos at the Delhi zoo. As soon as Shiva arrived, he was kept in a separate enclosure near those of the females, Maheshwari and Anjuga.

According to the zoo curator (education) Riaz Khan, Shiva drank lots of water after reaching the zoo. “He also ate bananas, sugarcane and green fodder. He is in good health.” Paneer Selvam, veterinary officer at the National Zoological Park who accompanied Shiva along with six other keepers, confirmed that Shiva was doing fine and will soon adapt to the new surroundings.

Shiva was caught in the wild in 1985 and has remained in the zoo since then. According to staff at Delhi zoo, making Shiva mate with Maheshwari and Anjuga will not be easy as spent the first quarter of his life in jungles, while the females are zoo-born-and-bred. But if they mate and calves are born, they will be sent back to Mumbai zoo.