Hyderabad: The Warangal zoo is set to be expanded from its present 48 acres to nearly 100 acres. Along with this, the zoo is also set to get more attractions. As of now, the zoo has about 15 enclosures and almost all of them house herbivores other than two which house jackal and sloth bear.
The zoo will soon acquire a leopard, for which the enclosure is built, along with gharial, nilgai and the exotic bird, Rhea, a large flightless bird like the ostrich which is a native of South America.
As the zoo has enough space, it has also plans of acquiring lions and tigers. The zoo will also be developing a snake park for which snakes will be brought from Chennai’s snake park and a nocturnal animals night house like at the Hyderabad zoo.
Warangal divisional forest officer Ganga Reddy, said, “Warangal zoo is one of the only two zoos in the state and we have plans of making it a major attraction. The district authorities have agreed to give revenue lands adjoining the zoo for expansion of the zoo.”
He said, “Warangal zoo has also been assigned for breeding of the endangered antelope species, chousinga. We have successfully bred them in captivity and so far we have nine of the animals.”
The zoo also has plans to breed another endangered species, the hog deer, along with the mouse deer in the near future. The Warangal zoo has earlier bred the ostrich in natural conditions, which is what has encouraged zoo officials to breed the rhea too.
When the Warangal zoo was started it used to earn just about Rs 40,000 per month, which has now climbed to Rs 2 lakh per month from about 18,000 visitors. The zoo gets visitors not just from Warangal but many from nearby districts too for whom Hyderabad is too far.
