Wildlife in rain-hit zoo cries for help

NAGPUR: Hit by heavy rains on July 31, captive wild animals in 50 cages in the Maharajbagh zoo are crying for help. No immediate steps have been taken to comfort the animals.

Taking a serious note of the sufferings of wild animals due to flooding of cages following heavy rains, and also the death of two deer, the Nagpur forest division had sent a two-member team along with honorary wildlife warden Kundan Hate to the zoo.

"The inspection was informal and we suggested the zoo officer in charge Dr S S Bawaskar to set up a hillock in portion of deer and sambar cage to avoid drowning of animals due to flooding," said divisional forest officer (DFO) S B Bhalavi and RFO D N Nandanwar.

The forest officials also suggested to increase the floor base of night shelters where wooden planks are kept for resting leopards. There are eight leopards in the zoo and all living in bad conditions caused by rains.

The zoo run by Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth (PDKV) is in a bad shape. Heavy rains exposed the lack of preparedness of PDKV to handle such situations.

Over the years, no steps were taken by the respective administrators to develop the zoo. PDKV receives lakhs of rupees under Maharajbagh entry ticket account (META) fund but except for feeding animals, this money is not spent on zoo's development. In 2012-13, the zoo received Rs1.04 crore.

The cloudburst on July 31 evening caused flooding of both the nullahs passing alongside the zoo and flooding of university road led to collapse of 167 metre compound wall at two places.

The meagre zoo staff was caught unawares when rainwater entered the night shelter, office and deer cage which are close to the nullah. The water overflowed from 9 feet compound wall and fence. The garbage and plastic that was stuck on the fence spoke volumes about the rain fury.

Office records were also washed away in rains and animal feed was damaged. Dr Bawaskar told the visiting forest officials that financial loss was not much. It was more about poor living conditions in most of the cages which were full of slush. "We never came across such a situation in the last 20 years," he told. Apart from the zoo, the garden too has been left in a bad shape with grass and slush everywhere.

"Although operating a zoo is not our mandate, we will take all possible steps to improve the condition. First the collapsed wall of the zoo will be built followed by other works. We need some time to improve things," said V S Gonge, associate dean and zoo controller, College of Agriculture.

Extent of damage

Cages: There is slush and water in all the animal cages. The worst affected are leopard cages where the animals were seen resting on wooden machans. The deer and sambar cages too are slushy and animals were seen atop a small platform inside. The condition of the cages is in bad shape. In tiger cage, the animal is sighted with difficulty due to tall grass

Office: Due to knee-deep water, several records and papers were damaged. Zoo in charge chamber along with entire office premises were flooded, causing inconvenience

Garden: There is green grass everywhere and water has entered the garden too. The play toys for children are damaged and many are out of use. The 167 metre compound wall along the garden side collapsed and work to rebuild it is on

Feed: Due to flooding, cements bags were destroyed besides animal feed to some extent. The staff managed to remove feed to a safer place