HYDERABAD: After a gap of 16 months, authorities at the Nehru Zoological Park(NZP) seem to have got their act together just in time for the holiday season. With the upgradation of 100-acre safari park and fresh procurement of four new CNG-buses, authorities are tentatively looking at March 31 for the relaunch of safari services.
NZP was the first zoo in the country to start the concept of a safari park in 1974 and had been operating lion safari, tiger safari, bear safari and bison safari till November 2014. At that time one of the vehicles broke down in the middle of Tiger safari, rolled down the slope on its own as driver went out to check, it caused moments of panic among the occupants of the vehicle. Frequent breakdowns of vehicles was crippling the services then and one of the most attractive features of the zoo was shut down for visitors.
The footfall at zoo was recorded between 5,000 and 7,000 on an average day, and this number goes up to 10,000 during summer. On weekends, up to 35,000 persons visit the city zoo.
Out of the 24 lions and 23 tigers present in the zoo, the NZP has decided to leave free four tigers and 13 lions in the safari park. Though the Central Zoo Authority had directed all zoos to operate safaris only with carnivorous animals, authorities here have decided to go ahead with bear safari while declining on the bison safari which operated earlier.
Explaining the same, an official said that four CNG-buses have been procured from Delhi to replace Swaraj Mazda buses. “These new buses are fuel efficient. There wont be any pollution or sound that will disturb the animals. One of the buses is in the zoo now. Other three are being readied at a local workshop. All four sides are meshed with aluminum fabrication works as precaution,” said the official. New signboards have been placed in the park, a new booking counter has been put up, and all roads have been carpeted with cement concrete(CC) etc. For the visitors, an audio system inside the bus will give pre-recorded information throughout the 30-minute long safari. Installation of CCTV cameras are in the pipeline. Tickets are priced at `40 each for adults and `20 per child. “We will conduct trial run without visitors for seven days so that animals get habituated with the safari. These are brand new vehicles and new drivers. We are looking at March 31 for inauguration by forest minister,” added the official.
Summer measures
As part of measures to protect animals from severe heat conditions, authorities have installed sprinklers for animals, foggers in birds enclosures, thunga grass (dry grass) at animal night houses and ivory birds’ enclosures, khas khas thattis at night houses, air-coolers for big animals, air-conditioners for nocturnal animals etc. They are also being provided with cool water to drink and are also supplemented with solutions of Glucon-D, B-complex, electoral, thermocare tonics etc. Their diet has also been altered to include fruits like watermelon, oranges and musk melons etc.