Officials finetune plans for ‘cageless’ zoo at SGNP

The proposed medium zoo at SGNP will have an ‘immersion concept’, that is visitors will get a sense of being a part of wildlife, said Tyagi. The enclosures’ barriers, night shelters will be hidden from visitors, to form a ‘cageless zoo’, he added. Currently, the mini zoo inside SGNP has nine tigers, three lions and one enclosure with around 40 deers.The forest department plans to upgrade the zoo and have 30 more species, the requirement for a medium-level zoo, said Vikas Gupta, chief conservator of forests, SGNP.

Besides natural pathways around enclosures, a toy train, which CZA has suggested be eco-friendly with electric and battery-operated haul engines, will run, overlooking all the enclosures.

The SGNP zoo’s “naturalness” will set it apart from the Byculla zoo. The zoo will have no exotic species, unlike Byculla zoo’s controversial and highly debated plan to bring Humboldt penguins to the revamped zoo.

Meanwhile, the CZA team will visit the Aarey site for the proposed ‘international’ zoo at Goregaon on Friday and has gone over the contour survey and the layout plan of the proposed zoo done by Myvets Charitable Trust and Research Centre.

Aarey’s highly undulated topography is a concern for officials, said Malhotra. “A lot of work will go into leveling the area. We have been shown plans but as it is a new zoo and not an upgradation of an existing one as in the case of Byculla and SGNP, these plans have to be justified,” he said. As per the layout plans, Aarey zoo would focus on herbivorous safari and night safaris.

While the team concedes that there is an unwritten norm that allows only one zoo per city, the city will have three zoos — Byculla zoo, Goregaon zoo and a medium zoo inside SGNP, if the Aarey zoo is approved by CZA.

The plan for the upgradation from the mini to medium zoo inside SGNP is “almost acceptable” said CZA officials. Officials said the upkeep of the current mini zoo is “almost satisfactory and we have given a few suggestions to improve it”.

anjali.lukose@expressindia.com