Photos: Lockdown spells quiet days at Pune’s Katraj Zoo

It’s only the staff keeping animals company at Pune’s Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park and Wildlife Research Centre, known more commonly as the Katraj Zoo since it closed doors to the public on March 14 due to the threat posed by the coronavirus. While its residents continue to be taken care of with greater safety precautions, multiple extensions to the lockdown are pinching the zoo in terms of unlikely fiscal targets, halted development work and delays in its animal exchange programme.

Updated on: May 27, 2020 5:37 PM IST

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A staff member sprays water on elephants at the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park and Wildlife Research Centre at Katraj in Pune on May 26. Animal exchange and other development programmes at the zoo in Katraj have come to a halt due to Covid-19 and a drop in revenue. (Milind Saurkar / HT Photo)

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A staff member arriving at the Katraj zoo is dispensed sanitizer while police personnel sanitize his motorbike. The lockdown due to the coronavirus has brought about an abrupt fall in the number of visitors and revenue. The zoo has been closed to the public since March 14. (Milind Saurkar / HT Photo)

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Rajkumar Jadhav (L), Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park and Wildlife Research Centre interacts with a zoo staffer. Jadhav told HT, that the centre had undertaken construction of four new cages for large cats like leopards and jungle cats and had finished about 80% of the work. That work is now stalled due to the lockdown. (Milind Saurkar / HT Photo)

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Carrots being washed and broken down before being fed to animals at the zoo. The zoo currently has about 100 staffers who keep the zoo guarded and take care of the 448 animals the zoo hosts. The lockdown has also put on hold the zoo’s animal exchange programme with the Hyderabad zoo. (Milind Saurkar / HT Photo)

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Caretakers make up the only visitors for the zoo’s animal residents these days. On any normal weekday before lockdown, the Katraj Zoo would see 5,000-10,000 visitors while on weekends, the number would rise to 12,000-18,000 visitors, zoo director Rajkumar Jadhav told HT. (Milind Saurkar / HT Photo)

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An animal cage is given a wash at the Katraj zoo. Staff at the zoo are included in the list of essential services and have been keeping the facility in shape during lockdown. They have been provided with gumboots, gloves and masks use while at work. Only staff living in red zone areas have been kept away. (Milind Saurkar / HT Photo)