Exchange of animals with Russian zoo in limbo

When the forest department and the state government sanctions the proposal to give three elephants to the Russian Zoo, then the city Zoo will be richer by a pair of White Lions, a pair of Siberian Tigers, five squirrel monkeys, 15 coatis and a pair of Llamas. While no other zoo in the country can boast of getting into such a tie up with a foreign zoo, authorities are apprehensive that they will lose the deal as the Russian zoo wants to seal it at the earliest.

E-mail communication between the two zoos was initiated as early as six months ago. But when the Yalta zoo solicited interest, the zoo authorities brought it to the notice of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. He suggested that forest minister Thiruvanchur Radhakrishnan and his forest and wildlife officials liaison with the Russian zoo but the deal is yet to gain momentum. However, G. Harikumar, principal chief conservator of Forests (Wildlife) & chief wildlife Warden told DC that certain protocols had to be met when it came to giving elephants on animal exchange to a foreign zoo.

“The proposal seeking three elephants before the forests and wildlife department has already been sent to the government”, said Harikumar. Currently there are five elephants calves at the Elephant Rehabilitation Centre at Kottur near Kappukadu in Thiruvananthapuram district. A top official of the Museum and Zoo told DC that as per a report by forest officials, there are four male and a female calf elephants at Kottur which are in the age group of 2-6.5 years.

“Usually elephant lovers prefer to get a calf elephant due to its playful nature. Depending on the clearance from the government, three of the calves would be sent to Russia. We are hoping that we will be able to clinch the deal with the Yalta zoo in Russia without much delay as Assam and Chennai zoos have several spare elephants enabling them to snatch the project”, said a top museum and zoo official.