Visakhapatnam: Authorities of Zoological Parks in AP are drawing up plans to set up a Marine Education and Conservation Centre (Marine Education Complex) at marine land complex of Indira Gandhi Zoological Park in the city to attract more visitors.
The centre will resemble a huge aquarium and host rare marine species (except dolphins) and is likely to come up at the IGZP, the only zoo that has the Bay of Bengal lashing at its boundaries.
The plans to set up the Complex came about after the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), a statutory body under the ministry of environment and forest said a firm ‘no’ to dolphinariums (exclusive home for dolphins).?
During a recent visit to the IGZP, director of Zoological Parks in AP, P. Malikarjuna Rao told this correspondent that AWBI has advised all state government against granting permission for dolphinariums.
The reason given for this suggestion was that the dolphinariums pose a grave heath risk to the mammals and the dolphins would not survive in captivity.
Following this suggestion, the proposal to set up the dolphinarium at the marine land complex of IGZP was scratched.
The authorities now plan to utilise the marine land complex, an open space of about 30 acres, on the coast to set up a marine education complex with crocodiles, sea turtles, some birds and many rare species of marine life.
“As the IGZP is attracting more and more visitors from all over the region and from neighbouring Southern Odisha round the year, we are planning to link the zoo to marine life to woo more animal lovers,” said IGZP curator G. Ramalingam.
Around 8 lakh people visited the IGZP last year. The gate collection of the zoo touched Rs 1.92 crore, its highest ever, the curator revealed.?
The proposal to set up the marine education complex will forwarded to the central zoo authorities for approval within a few weeks.
If everything goes as per plan, the IGZP will the new home for marine species with advanced enclosures in 2014,” said Malikarjuna Rao.
