Coming soon: Six new zoos .

Wednesday, 30 November 2011 23:36

Moushumi Basu | New Delhi

Much to the delight of children and animal lovers, at least six new zoological gardens are being proposed in the country. Among the major attractions in them will be the first ever Night Safari in the country at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Panther Safari at Raigad in Maharashtra. The new zoos will be in addition to the already existing 22 in the country.
According to sources in the Central Zoo Authority, out of the six proposed zoological gardens that have been granted approval three are in Uttar Pradesh alone. Out of the other three, two are in Maharashtra and one in Madhya Pradesh.
The most awaited is, however, the Greater Noida Night Safari which will be the fourth of its kind in the world after Singapore, China and Thailand. CZA has granted approval under Section 38H(2) of the Wildlife Protection Act. It has also got the mandatory approval by the Supreme Court.
The Lion Safari proposed in Etawah, though having received clearances from both the CZA and the SC, has remained a non-started due to a power tussle between SP and BSP.
Yet another zoo proposed at Ramgarh Tal Development Area in Gorakhpur is expected to house animals from derecognised zoos of the State.
Two other similar proposals for Agra and Muradabad have, however, been shot down on the ground that the proposed sites were within the flood plains of Yamuna and Ram Ganges rivers and thus not suitable for creation of zoos.
Maharashtra being one of the worst-hit States in man-leopard conflicts, CZA has also granted approval for setting up a leopard rescue centre at Ahmednagar. Further, Madhya Pradesh is also expected to have a zoo and animal rescue centre at Satna.
Among the existing top five zoos, the Alipur Zoological Gardens (West-Bengal) is home to rare captive breeding projects involving the Manipur Brow-antlered Deer.
The Allen Forest Zoo (Uttar Pradesh)  is created out of natural forest and its main attractions include white tigers and Asiatic lions. Aringar Anna Zoological Park (Tamil Nadu) is an Avian paradise and roosting ground for migratory birds. It is also home to a wide variety of species of monkeys. While the Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park/ Chatbir Zoo (Chandigarh) has Lion Safari and Royal Bengal Tiger as its main draws, the Guwahati Zoo (Assam) has one-horned rhino, Himalayan Black Bear, stump-tailed Macaque and the Hoolock gibbons as its major attractions.
Source: http://dailypioneer.com/nation/24434-coming-soon-six-new-zoos.html