HYDERABAD: Preventing water-borne diseases and deaths due to consumption of polluted water among inmates of Nehru Zoological Park here topped the agenda at the veterinary expert committee meeting held at the zoo on Monday. Apart from this, the need to cut down the rodent population in the zoo and proper ventilation at primate enclosures also figured in the meeting.
Putting a stop to the problem of polluted groundwater seeping into the animal enclosures in the zoo and setting up of sewage treatment plant at the tank to prevent it getting polluted further were also discussed by the expert committee. According to a release by the Hyderabad zoo, the zoo consultant Dr M Navin Kumar and veterinarians from the PVNR Telangana State Veterinary University raised this issue at the meeting. The veterinary university officials also pointed out the need to control the rodent problem in the zoo, to prevent the spread of diseases among animals like Leptospira.
Dr Kumar said, “The groundwater in and around Mir Alam tank is highly contaminated due to seepage of polluted water from the tank into the ground. This polluted groundwater seeps into the moats of many animal enclosures, which were constructed many years ago and are much below the ground level.”