HYDERABAD: Minister for Forests and Environment S Vijayarama Raju on Wednesday called for the modernisation of zoo parks keeping in mind all the aspects of animal welfare. Speaking at the inaugural of the four-day national workshop on Designing of Enclosures and Landscape Planing and Master Plan of Indian Zoos’ sponsored by the Central Zoo Authority of India (CZAI), he said, “We have to make some standards to modernise the zoos based on the analysis of the needs of animals, management and visitors.”He felt zoos should be akin to the natural habitat of the various species and facilitate research studies on animal behaviour. He advised the participants at the workshop to come up with feasible and new guidelines for the modernisation of zoos.Elaborating on the purpose of conducting the workshop, BS Bansal, member-secretary, CZAI, said their objective was to prepare a master plan for enrichment of habitat for animals and birds and to find methods to upgrade the administration of zoos. The CZAI has been asking the government to grant funds for the overall improvement of zoos, but the response has not been encouraging, Bansal said.The three zoos in Tirupati, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad have more than three million visitors per annum, and they are spreading the message of wildlife conservation, said AP zoos director P Mallikarjuna Rao. “In a couple of years, the Hyderabad Nehru Zoological Park would become a model zoo in the country as it has become a good animal breeding centre,” he said.
Comments
0 comment