This is good news for the wildlife lovers because lion Safari Etawah is all set to be a Night Safari. Director lion Safari KK Singh said that the entire plan has been prepared and will be soon submitted to the Central Zoo Authority for approval. Talking to “The Pioneer” on Wednesday the Director said that the idea of turning the lion Safari into a Night Safari was the brain child of the Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. “lion Safari is also being turned into a Night Safari and for this a layout plan is being prepared which will be submitted to the Central Zoo Authority. It is the brain child of the Chief Minister” he said.
Singh said that the nocturnal animals will be highlighted in the Night Safari. “ The Night Safari will highlight the nocturnal animals such as leopard and tiger. The lion Safari as a Night Safari requires a different structure for viewing the animals which could be a glass barricading through which the animals could be watched” he said. The director admitted that the whole experience is different for the visitor when he goes in a walk through for the Night Safari. “The whole experience is different because the entire activity of the animal can be watched without the animal knowing it. The camouflaging allows this to happen for the visitor” he said.
The director of the lion Safari said that they were also including more animals in the lion Safari. “We will be including more animals in the lion Safari which include the antelopes, leopards, bears, wolves and hyenas. The lion Safari is including these animals because there is a lot of these animals which are rescued from different parts of the state which can be included in this Safari. We have a bear rescue centre, a large number of leopards which have been rescued from the different parts of the state will also be brought here” he said.
The lion safari will also be having a 5 dimensional centre at the lion Safari. “This facility has been introduced for the visitors and will be an added attraction. While the 3-dimensional brings in the three D view of the picture, the four dimension brings in movement and the five dimensional will bring in the water and the sound effect” he said. He said that the lion Safari is also focusing on the breeding programme for the inmates and that it was an extremely challenging task to breed these lions. “There are too many aspects involved and at every step. First of all what is important is that the animals have to be acclimatized to the new conditions and then one has to see whether the pair is compatible with another. What follows next is whether there will mate and if they mate whether the child will be still born or healthy. We are carrying out the breeding programmes but there are N number of factors that needed to be taken care of” he said.
He said that once they get a few offsprings they will open the lion Safari for the public. “We are waiting for the breeding programme to be successful and then we will open the Safari will open for the public” he said. Talking about the death of two lions at the lion safari in the recent past , the senior forest official said that there was not much studies on wildlife. “There is very little which is known about the wildlife diseases. The Animal husbandary Department does not have this expertise and at the most we can depend is on the institute of Wildlife and the IVRI Bareilly. There are several diseased which are also not curable” he said. The Etawah lion Safari is one of the priority projects of the Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and is slated to be one of the prime attractions for the tourists in the coming days and is being awaited with a lot of enthusiasm.