The Union Environment Ministry on Tuesday released a manual, containing guidelines and a “first-of-its-kind in the world” on design parameters, to be followed while setting up zoos in the country.
After releasing the manual, Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan asked the authorities concerned to develop courses on zoo management too.
“Today, I released a book - Design Guidelines for Zoos, the first of its kind in the world on design parameters for zoo, jointly written by Prof
Rommel Mehta, a well-known architect and Dr DN Singh, Member Secretary of #CentralZooAuthority,” Vardhan said in a tweet. The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) oversees all zoos in India.
The Minister added “It will also help zoo authorities across the world as a manual. I have asked the Central Zoo Authority to ensure, any redevelopment of Indian zoos should be according to these guidelines.” These courses would help the personnel, trained in zoo management, sensitise the visitors as regards various aspects of environmental protection, the Minister said.
However, ironically while the Ministry has framed ambitious guidelines for new zoos, it is sitting over a damning report against the National Zoological Park in Delhi. The report prepared by the CZA has accused the Delhi Zoo of fudging the data on animal deaths in its annual inventory report for 2017.
According to the report prepared by CZA Member Secretary DN Singh, the Delhi zoo recorded 325 deaths in 2016-17 from an opening stock of 1,259 animals. The closing stock of the zoo during this period stood at 1,202 animals. However, it failed to report the deaths as per the norms.
The report claims that the city zoo not only misreported on the number of animal deaths during 2016-17, it also faltered on maintaining proper postmortem reports.
The zoo did not include the deaths of several animals, including endangered species such as the brow-antlered deer, sambar deer, black buck, white buck, spotted deer, barking deer, red jungle fowl and
palm civet, as per the report submitted to the Ministry seeking serious action against the errant officers.
While the Ministry is taking its own time to take action on the report for the reason best known to it, the mismanagement in the Delhi zoo has already come under the scanner of the Delhi High Court.
A petition filed in the court has alleged irregularities including suppression of news of animal deaths, illegally capturing animals to replace the dead, expired drugs being administered to animals, illegally procuring Ketamine and portions of a rhino horn going missing.
The PIl has been filed based on at least eight reports by the CZA and other agencies filed since 2016.
This is not the first time that the zoo has been found floundering the rules. In the first week of May, Delhi Zoo officials allegedly didn’t record the deaths of six spotted deer, according to a complaint lodged with the Ministry.