With the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) conference just three months away, the city’s National Zoological Park is in the process of getting a fresh lease of life. As zoo officials have already created new pathways, maps and signage, now their focus has shifted to upgrading the Wildlife Hospital situated inside the park. The state-of-the-art new hospital is expected to have advanced facilities like an operation theatre, ultra sound machine, laser instruments and other high quality laboratory equipment.
With a budget of nearly Rs 25 lakh, complete renovation of the hospital is expected to be over by September. Once upgraded, the now gloomy hospital will house fully functional biochemistry and pathology laboratories, microscope with camera and semi to fully automatic blood analysers. At present, the hospital has no facility of blood testing and analysis. The veterinarians have to send the zoo inmates’ blood samples to other laboratories for getting them tested, the results of which take anywhere between two and six days.
Explaining the status of work in the hospital, Delhi Zoo, Curator (Education) RA Khan said, “We have started with the building first. Currently, the workers are fixing new tiles with which the flooring will get a new look. The walls are being painted. Once that is done, the new equipment will be brought in.” With the new equipment, the doctors will be able to offer immediate diagnosis and healthcare to animals. The relief provided would be faster and more accurate, added an official.
According to veterinarians in the hospital, infighting, rabies and tuberculosis have always been the most common causes for deaths which have, at times, even turned fatal in the Delhi zoo. A series of anti-rabies vaccination have already been initiated by veterinarians in the zoo. Besides, anti-tuberculosis tablets are also administered to all animals. “The anti-tuberculosis tablets are given continuously for three months in a year. This is usually done during April, May and June,” said a zoo official.
In June, the zoo’s only male rhino, Shiva (38), had died due to a cancerous growth in his snout. Prior to that, in April, a six-year-old female Royal Bengal Tiger, Rama, was killed by a seven-year-old tiger during mating. Even before that, in January, the zoo had lost five white tiger cubs to various infections.
Until now, the zoo authority had to hire ultrasound machines to do tests on the animals. Recently the doctors hired one machine to check if a tigress was pregnant. But once the entire renovation project is complete, all such tests could be done in the hospital itself and there shall be better infection control methods, said the official.