Team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be given an opportunity to adopt a wild animal lodged at Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park this time when he visits his hometown. The Zoo officials have categorised a list of species for Dhoni to select.
Talking to The Pioneer, Zoo Director AK Patra said, “We are waiting for Dhoni’s upcoming visit. Once he is here, we will request him to adopt a male leopard, tigress, elephant, Himalayan bear or Bison since these are in large numbers at our zoo premises.”
“Being the Ambassador of Zoo Authority of India, we expect that he will not disappoint us this time,” added Patra.
Among these animals listed for Dhoni, a grown up male leopard named Hari rescued from Hara village at Chanho block by the zoo authorities on March 19 without tranquilising is also included.
Zoo Veterinary Specialist Dr Ajay Kumar said, “It has rarely been noticed that leopard is trapped without tranquiliser. Our zoo keepers Etwa Oraon, Duma Ram and Brajendra are the actual heroes who helped us in bringing the ferocious animal to the zoo.”
These three zoo keepers would be felicitated by the zoo authorities for their brave effort in this rescue operation on August 15. “It is usually seen that animals go through casualty in such operations, but Hari was nowhere injured. The credit goes to our zoo keepers,” said Dr Kumar.
Tigress Durga adopted by former Miss World cum Bollywood Queen Priyanka Chopra in the 2011-12 is also in this selection list. In 2011, the zoo had begun the scheme of animal adoption wherein a person or organization has to pay a certain amount as fixed deposit for the animal upbringing in the zoo itself for a certain period of his or her choice. After the fixed deposit is done, the zoo people utilize the interest amount generated from this saving for these animals.
In 2011, organisations like MECON and SAIl had adopted tiger, leopard, elephants and peacocks from this zoo for a period of five years.
locals from the State capital had also shown interest to this scheme.
Adding more to this adoption episode, Priyanka Chopra had adopted a lioness Sundari in the financial year 2012-13 after her one year adoption of tigress Durga completed.
Explaining the hidden reason behind Priyanka’s adoption Patra said, “The Bollywood queen Chopra’s maternal home at Jamshedpur had a female monkey who was quite old. According to Wildlife Protection Act, wild animals cannot be kept at home. It was then we captured and brought the monkey here in 2010 who was suffering with many ailments. We treated her and now she is well. Priyanka might have felt guilty for keeping this wild animal at her home by violating the wildlife act. To repent over this guilt she probably must have expressed her desire to adopt wild animal from our zoo.”
