Rs 200-crore facelift for Mumbai zoo

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, May 19

With the official residence of Mumbai’s Mayor Vishwanath Mahadeshwar moving in to the city zoo, the long-neglected facility is getting a Rs 200-crore facelift.

Under the expansion plan which has been sanctioned by the Central Zoo Authority, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation — which manages the British-era Veermata Jijabai Udyan, originally Victoria Garden — a number of exotic animals would be added over the next two years.

Among the exotic exhibits proposed include wallabies, okapi, emu, cassowary, oryx, jaguar and white lions.

According to zoo director Dr Sanjay Tripathi, the animals would be exhibited in special glass enclosures. “We have completed construction of some enclosures and a 3D theatre,” Tripathi said. Soon, two bird aviaries and ponds for turtles would be completed, he added.

The zoo authorities are bringing in a number of animals under arrangement with zoos in other parts of India. A pair of leopards and jackals has already been acquired from the Mangalore zoo. They will be put up for exhibition after their period of quarantine.

The authorities have also proposed to acquire a lion from Junagadh zoo.

Officials from the BMC say the enclosures of most of the animals would have glass facades to prevent members of the public from harming them.

In 2016, the Shiv Sena-controlled BMC brought in seven Humboldt penguins from South Korea at the behest of party leader Aaditya Thackeray. The birds, which are controlled in a temperature-controlled enclosure, draw scores of visitors.