More breathing space for endangered animals at Bannerghatta Park

BENGALURU: Most of the endangered animals at Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP), living in smaller and compact enclosures for years, will now have more breathing space as the BBP is about to complete construction of eight new enclosures at a whopping Rs 2.5 crore.

The unsystematically-planned enclosures in the BBP and the lack of better infrastructure have been held responsible for the death of many endangered animals in the park in the past.

However, to solve this problem, the BBP has taken up construction of new and bigger enclosures across the park with the assistance of private companies. “The construction of eight new enclosures at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore is almost on the verge of its completion stage, and we plan to introduce animals in their new enclosures next month,” said Santosh Kumar, executive director, Bannerghatta Biological Park.

Currently the enclosures are built for the endangered mammals like the Himalayan Black Bear, Nilgiri Langur, Assamese Macaque, Lion-tailed Macaque, Zebras, Hippopotamuses and many more. He said, “These animals have very little space to move because of the smaller enclosure size, especially the Himalayan black bear. We have five animals and they all need more space. So we had to create a master plan and with the help of funding from the central zoo authority and private companies like Infosys we have taken up construction of many enclosures.”

The authorities in their master plan have also included the availability of space next to the parking area to build more enclosures. The authorities said, “Since our park is on the outskirts of the city, unlike Delhi and other zoos, we have a lot of land available and soon construction of more enclosures for the captive animals in the park will be taken up.”

Meanwhile, among the eight new enclosures, one enclosure will be for four zebras received from the Zoological Centre, Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan (Safari) in Israel. The authorities said the animals are under quarantine and are waiting for the report from a research centre in Haryana checking the blood samples for any foreign diseases.“It has been over five months now and the animals seem to have adapted to this climatic condition without any problem. According to the rule, we have to get their blood samples tested three different times and we are about to receive the final report in another two weeks,” Mr. Kumar said.

The authorities ruled out the possibility of water scarcity or any likely deaths due to the acute water shortage this summer and claimed that the October and November showers have increased the ground water level and water bodies across 732 hectares of the park area.

Promise unfulfilled
A few years ago the Mysore Zoo had promised BBP that it would present it with the world’s tallest mammal, namely, the giraffe. The BBP, after clearance from the Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK) constructed an enclosure spreading across half a hectare with a seven-foot long fencing. The BBP authorities now claim that the Mysore zoo is in no mood to gift its giraffe and is delaying the process by claiming that after successful breeding it will be gifting one to the BBP.