Indore’s Kamla Nehru Zoo may house yellow anacondas

The inmates of Indore’s Kamla Nehru Zoo may soon find company of two giant yellow anacondas.

The inmates of Indore’s Kamla Nehru Zoo may soon find company of two giant yellow anacondas.

A male hippopotamus at Kamla Nehru Zoo in Indore. (Arun Mondhe/HT photo)

The zoo authorities are trying to bring a pair of yellow anacondas from Chennai Snake Park under the animal exchange program and are waiting for a clearance from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA). If approved, this will be the first time that Indore citizens will witness the reptile in the city.

“We are in talks with authorities of Chennai Snake Park. They are ready to gift us a pair of yellow anacondas in exchange of a cobra and a monitor lizard,” sources said. “However, it is too premature to say what animals will be exchanged between the zoo authorities,” they added.

“Once the permissions are cleared from CZA, we will start building a separate enclosure with a pond,” said zoo in-charge Dr Uttam Yadav.

“We are trying to develop a reptile centre in the zoo, where we can at least house 25 species of reptiles,” said a volunteer of Animal Rehabilitation & Protection Front (ARPF).

The zoo authorities are also planning to build a butterfly park in the premises and a canopy walkway and are in talks to bring an ostrich and a male white tiger from Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological Park.

Meanwhile, Moti, an elephant going through his musth phase (a periodic condition marked by highly aggressive behaviour), recently tried to break the walls of his enclosure and broke a part of it.

The elephant was later chained. On Tuesday, Moti broke his clutches and was chained as a precautionary measure. Testosterone levels of an elephant during musth phase can be as much as 60 times greater than that in the same elephant at other times, said a zookeeper.