A week after a youth was mauled to death by a white tiger, things are literally falling apart at the Delhi zoo, as far as security arrangements at tiger enclosures are concerned. On Tuesday, the glass facade, that was supposed to be installed in one of the tiger enclosures, was found “mysteriously shattered”. Zoo officials claimed that it was a “serious mischief” and will identify the perpetrators.
The Delhi Zoo is currently undergoing a design overhaul in the run-up to the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) conference, scheduled to take place in November.
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The zoo had planned to install three glass façades at enclosure No. 10 which houses white tiger Malar.
According to a zoo official, the revamp of enclosure 10 had begun a year ago and glass facades were installed in three viewing points. However, one of them got damaged and the zoo was planning to replace the damaged glass.
“Today, we were supposed to replace the damaged glass. But this morning, we found the new glass shattered,” a zoo official said.
“This has made us introspect about the quality of glass procured. Had the glass been installed and it shattered while visitors were around then it would have had far worse consequences,” a senior zoo official said.
When asked about standards adopted by the zoo while procuring such material, a zoo official said they did not have any “particular norms” regarding the matter.
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The glass façades of four bird enclosures – silver pheasant, golden pheasant, military macaw and blue and yellow macaw – have been damaged, but are yet to be replaced.
“We have send proposals to replace them. But we do not know when that will happen,” the official said. Zoo curator Riaz Khan said “things should be in place” before Delhi showcases its zoo to the world during the WAZA conference.
Meanwhile, seven-year-old Vijay, who had attacked and killed 22-year-old Maqsood, was back in enclosure No. 8 on Tuesday morning.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
