Two non-BJP States — Karnataka and West Bengal —have agreed to ‘gift’ their two grey wolves and colourful Kalij Pheasants each respectively to the upcoming Gorakhpur Zoo in BJP Chief Minister Aditya Nath Yogi’s hometown in Uttar Pradesh.
While the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park (also called the Darjeeling Zoo) in West Bengal has agreed to part away with two bright male pheasants, Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, popularly known as ‘Mysuru Zoo’, one of the oldest zoos in the country, will hand over a pair of Grey wolves to the Shaheed Ashfaqullah Khan Prani Udyan also known as Gorakhpur Zoo being constructed in the same namesake district.
A distinctive pheasant with bare red facial skin, the Kalij Pheasant has a backward-pointing crest with a vertically compressed tail. Males are iridescent black and silver while females are grayish-brown. These winged beauties are found in forested areas, usually in the mountains.
Although the Indian gray wolf is distributed in a vast area of peninsular India, the actual estimates of wolf populations are available only from Gujarat and Rajasthan. Only a few reports on the occurrence of wolf are available from Karna-taka The Indian Grey Wolves are social animals, i.e. they live in packs and generally with one pair amongst them which gives birth to a litter of pups during the colder months. After shifting the pair of wolves which have been given name as Ajay and Kumda, the Mysuru Zoo will be left with nine pairs.
Not keen to lose on the time, the UP Government wants that the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), under the Union Environment Ministry, should give permission to keep the ‘gifted’ animals at Lucknow Zoo for transit period till the construction work of the enclosures is completed. A total 33 enclosures are being constructed to house the animals in the zoo to be sprawled in the area of 121 acres of land.
The cost for transportation of the gifted animals will be borne by the Gorakhpur Zoo that will have state-of-the art facilities such as amphitheatre, snake park, avian enclosures and butter fly park among other basic facilities.
Sources in the Ministry, which oversees the functioning of the CZA, said that the proposal is being studied as keeping the ‘gifted’ animals for a transit period in a zoo, other than where they will be permanently housed is usually not in the interest of the animals transported from their original enclosures.
In fact, the proposal to construct the Gorakhpur Zoo had been pending for quite a long time during the SP government which was approved by the Central Zoo Authority and Supreme Court in Mayawati’s tenure, in 2010. However, it gained momentum after the BJP Government took over the regime in the State. It will be the first in the eastern UP and bigger than the Lucknow zoo.
Initially, it was called as Gorakhpur zoo which was rechristened by the SP Government after revolutionary Ashfaqullah Khan, in May 2012.