VISAKHAPATNAM: Two days after the death of tigress Sita, a 26-year-old lioness, Sudha, died at the Animal Rescue Centre (ARC) in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. As such, the ARC, which is managed by the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park, is now left with six big cats--four lionesses, one tiger and one tigress--who were rescued from different circuses after their exhibition for entertainment purposes was prohibited in the last decade.
Now, the zoo authorities are planning to introduce more big cats to the facility brought from other parts of the country so that a tiger and lion safari at the ARC could begin in the near future. As all the felines at the rescue centre are around 25 years old, they are developing health problems related to old age. The authorities are planning to start a breeding programme for Bengal tigers.
“For the proposed safari, we have to initially build a significant population of lions and tigers at the zoo. Towards that effort, we have recently brought tigers to the zoo and may also get a tigress in the near future. As Bilaspur Zoo has accepted our offer, we have sent a proposal to the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) to allow us get one of their tigers,” zoo curator Yeshoda Bai told TNIE.
After the government banned using animals for entertainment in circuses, many tigers and lions were rescued and given shelter at the ARC. While some parts of the facilty is enclosed for the rescued animals, other areas were utilised for animals, brought from other zoos or rescued from forests, kept on quarantine.
“We need clearance from the forest department as we need to use forest land for safari,” she added in forest area needs forest clearance, as we need to use forest land”, she added.
One more big cat dies
Lioness Sudha was rescued from Ajantha Circus in 2001. She died of multiple organ failure at the age of 26