E-Paper
Zoo tackling water scarcity problem
IN ORDER to avoid scarcity of potable water for the animals in the zoo, the authorities have introduced flexible working hours system. The system has been adopted following long and unscheduled power rostering in the city.
IN ORDER to avoid scarcity of potable water for the animals in the zoo, the authorities have introduced flexible working hours system. The system has been adopted following long and unscheduled power rostering in the city.
Zoo director R Hemant Kumar told HT that there were two tube-wells in the zoo to meet the inmates’ requirement of water. However, one of the tubewells was out of order and repair was pending for want of funds. Consequently, the zoo animals depended upon the water supplied by the one working tubewell.
Due to no fixed timings of power supply, the duty of the tubewell operator has been fixed with the power supply. He has been asked to work till the power is available. He is off work during rostering.
“Since the zoo has no water tank, it is necessary to keep the tubewell running to fill the moats and other water collecting sources to ensure water supply to the animals,” the director said. About the water tank, Kumar said that he had discussed the issue with his predecessors but they said the construction of water tank was not in the interest of the animals. On the one hand, no one would bother to clean it regularly and properly and on the other, the use of chemicals in cleaning the tank would prove to be dangerous for the heath of the inmates.
He said the 400 stray deer or cheetals who roamed in about 70 hectares of the zoo were facing problem of scarcity of water as there was no place where water could be stored for them. Usually, they quenched their thrust from the lake water. An arrangement was also made recently to shift them to the safari park, but the park lacked adequate vegetation to feed them. The zoo has no additional funds to arrange feed for these stray cheetals. They are given the left-over feed of the animals. Besides, often the feed contractors, out of generosity, provided one or two quintals of green feed free of cost, which helps the stray cheetals to survive.
Since the number of crocodiles has gone up in the safari lake, the cheetals do not dare to go near the lake for water or eat the green grass available there.
”We are very concerned about the population of the stray deer, who add to the beauty of the zoo and also attract young visitors, but we are helpless due to fiscal crunch,” the director said.
