Chennai: After 30 years, the Arignar Anna Zoological Park got an one-horned rhinoceros from the Kaziranga Zoological Park in Assam.
The Arignar Anna Zoological Park (abbreviated AAZP), also known as the Vandalur Zoo, is a zoological garden located in Vandalur and was opened in 1986. The Vandalur zoo has not had a rhinoceros since 1989.
The last male great one-horned rhinoceros the zoo had, came to the zoo in 1985 from Assam, but died in 1989 due to illness.
Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami had written a request to the Zoological Parks in Assam and Bihar to send a pair of the species to the Vandalur zoo.
Accepting the Chief Minister's request, the Assam Kaziranga national park sent a four-year-old male one-horned rhinoceros to the zoo.
The animal was brought to Chennai in a truck accompanied by a medical team from Assam.
Zoo authorities said the animal was kept under observation, and within a week or two, the public can visit the rhino.
Earlier in 2013, the Assam government declined the then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's request for a pair of greater one-horned rhinoceros for the zoo, in exchange for two gaurs.
The reason given at that time was that the Guwahati zoo had only a very few animals.
