Coming up, lion safari park in Rajkot

The RMC had applied for CZA clearance to its proposed Asiatic lion safari park early this year. A statement from the RMC said that on November 26, the expert group of zoo designing committee of the CZA discussed RMC’s project report and master layout plan of the proposed safari park and had recommended approval to the project. Subsequently, the CZA forwarded the proposal to the Union government. After the Union government gave its green signal to the proposed safari park, the CZA communicated its approval to the RMC.

At the proposed site of Asiatic Lion safari park in Rajkot. (Express photo by Chirag Chotaliya)

The proposed safari park will be developed on 33 hectare of land, east of Pradyuman Park and on the bank of Randarda lake. The RMC said that visitors will be taken on a lion safari in the park in battery-operated cars.

“The safari park can be treated as an expansion of the Pradyuman Park. However, it will have only lions in semi-captive conditions. We don’t have approval as yet to keep large herbivores inside it. However, we are doing plantation in the land and there are plans to build a check-dam. Given its proximity to Randarda lake, it is very likely that the park will have a rich birdlife,” the civic official said.

Rajkot Zoological Park, popularly known as Pradyuman Park zoo, is one of the participating zoo in the conservation breeding programme run by Sakkar Bagu Zoo. Rajkot zoo presently has nine Asiatic lions.

The RMC statement said that the project will be developed at an estimated cost of Rs 30 crore. It added that work will start soon on constructing a 4,300 m-long wall, including a 1,000-m-long section of reinforced-cement-concrete wall along the bank of Randarda lake, and 5,500-m-long chain-link fence at the proposed site.