Kerala zookeepers learn from North East

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Zookeepers from here and Thrissur are away from the hustle and bustle of rearing and caring animals. They are in the North East for further training in zoos there. The 13-day outing at Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park at Darjeeling, Nagaland Zoological Park and the Assam State Zoo cum Botanical Garden would be a tremendous learning experience where they got the opportunity to learn about the breeding facilities for Snow Leopard and Red Panda.  Unfortunately, none of the 32 daily wagers at Thiruvananthapuram Zoo ever receives any such training.

The contingent set off on their journey on Nov 1 where they first went to Arignar Anna Zoological Park, also known as the Vandalur Zoo in Chennai. Central Zoo Authority has made it mandatory that all the zookeepers in the country should be provided with training from the best zoos in the country.  From Chennai, they embarked on their North East trip where Assam State Zoo cum Botanical Garden is the largest of its kind in the region, which is spread across 432 acres. Thiruvananthapuram Zoo is the captive breeding centre for Lion Tailed Macaque. But when they visited the Darjeeling Zoo, these keepers got the opportunity to see two rare animals, Snow Leopard and Red Panda.

"It was a firsthand experience for me to know about these two species and also their breeding techniques. We also got an opportunity to realise where our city zoo stood compared to the North East zoos", said A. Vincent, Thrissur Zoo supervisor, en route his way to Bhubaneswar. For long the Thiruvananthapuram Zoo lacked the service of a biologist. There have been instances where biologists were recruited from Employment Exchange which would mean that they would have to leave after six months of training. This has never helped the Thiruvananthapuram Zoo. The North East contingent was led by T. V. Anil Kumar, superintendent of Thiruvananthapuram Zoo.

"It is when the team visited the North East zoos did we realise that the Thiruvananthapuram Zoo is the best when it comes to administrative and enclosure levels. It is the high time our zoo got elevated to a centre of research level though," said Anil Kumar. Currently, there are more daily wagers than the 12 permanent keepers at the Thiruvananthapuram Zoo alone. Unfortunately, the 42 daily wagers never get an opportunity for training from other zoos in the country as the government norms do not permit them to sponsor their travel.