Patna may be known as the rhino capital

With the arrival of two rhinos from Santiago Zoo in California under an exchange programme, the Patna zoo will now have around one third of the total 35 across the country's zoos, reports Partha Pratim Roy.

Patna may soon be known as the ‘rhino capital’. With the arrival of two rhinos from Santiago Zoo in California under an exchange programme, the Patna zoo will now have around one third of the total 35 across the country's zoos.

HT Image

With a substantial number of Rhinos in its possession, the Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park might be given the status of Centre for Research for Rhino Breeding (CRRB). Director of Sanjay Gandhi Park, Rakesh Kumar, told HT that he would soon apply to Central Zoo Authority (CZA) to bestow this rare honour on the Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park.

"The park here has the largest number of rhinos (total 10) in the country. On the basis of this figure, we will soon apply to CZA to declare the park as the Centre for Research for Rhino Breeding," he said. With the arrival of two new female rhinos, the park now has six female rhinos, while the number of male rhinos, after handing over two male rhinos to Santiago Zoo, stood at four.

"The exchange programme has been initiated to save the rhinos from some rare disease arising out of inbreeding. Besides, with this exchange programme, Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park has also taken an initiative to improve the breed of the rhinos. "The park will start maintaining the ‘stud book’ as soon as we get the research centre status from CZA. The stud book will bring the park into direct contact with International Rhino Foundation, and it will be given access to total data of rhinos world over including their distribution, number, male-female ratio etc," the director said.

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