PATNA: At a time when monotony is badly griping the lives of people, especially children, amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown, a Patna Zoo's virtual tour has come as a relief.
The initiative 'Patna Zoo Virtual' started by the Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, has attracted nine lakhs viewers within a week of its launch.
Every day, thousands of people including children and animal lovers are taking the virtual tour of Bihar’s famous Sanjay Gandhi Jaivik Udyaan (Patna Zoo) while staying at their homes.
Sharing this with The New Indian Express, Amit Kumar, director of Patna Zoo, said, "Within one week of its launch, more than 9 lakhs animal lovers across globe have virtually visited the Patna Zoo and shared their experiences via different social media platforms."
Since the Patna Zoo has a huge portfolio of 800 wild animals and birds, the whole campaign is divided into a series of episodes that describe natural habitat, food habits, reproduction cycle and other interesting facts of one animal at a time. It provides fascinating information to viewers that have become an instant hit in audiences.
He said that the DEFCC had already premiered 6 episodes since the launch of the tour, each featuring tigers, birds, rhinoceros, chimpanzees, giraffes and elephants respectively as exclusive sneak peeks.
"Amid the lockdown, as the Patna Zoo is temporarily closed for the viewers, the virtual tour shows interesting insights of the wildlife present in the zoo," he claimed, adding that the initiative is also aimed at spreading knowledge among people about wildlife.
The virtual initiative was started following the directive of principal secretary of environment, forest and climate change department Dipak Kumar Singh. He thought that the zoo lovers would visit the zoo virtually and see their favorite animals and birds while staying home.
"So far this has been a successful initiative and more than 9 lakhs people have already viewed DEFCC’s exclusive content through department’s official YouTube account (DEFCC OFFICIAL), Facebook page (@defccofficial) and twitter account," Kumar added.