Chennai: Following a report in DC about the inactiveness of state forest department, top officials including forest department secretary Md Nasimuddin and principal chief conservator of forests H. Basuvaraju have enquired a few senior foresters in the state seeking clarifications.
Report that appeared in Deccan Chronicle
Basuvaraju, who is also the head of the forest department, also directed the public relations department to look into recent newspaper clippings and has directed officials to address the issues raised by the various media organisations and ensure that all pending projects are completed without further delay.
“PCCF has also directed the wildlife officials to speed up the conservation projects kept pending and also enquired about the upkeep of wild animals at Arignar Anna Zoological Park at Vandalur”, an informed official at Panagal building, (forest headquarters') said. After reviewing the controversial issue like the shifting of project tiger office from Coimabatore to Chennai, recruitment of scientists and technical staff to advanced institute of wildlife management at Vandalur and pending conservation projects, the PCCF also went into a group discussion with other IFS officers and urged foresters to speed up the ongoing projects.
Responding to the queries raised by the office of PCCF, the Vandalur zoo officials had clarified that while there have been a few cases of biog cat deaths, but the zoo during the year 2017 has successfully increased the birth rate of wild inmates with large herbivores like Indian Gaur, deer, lion tailed macaque and terrestrial birds successfully breeding under captive conditions.
Meanwhile Vandalur zoo on Wednesday announced that the State Bank of India has donated close to Rs 2 lakh towards the zoo animal adoption programme under which lion tailed macaques and Nilgiri langurs are to be fed for a year. The zoo has also introduced online booking of tickets for the visitors and is now undertaking tree plantings to enhance the tree cover lost during cyclone Vardah.
