Asia’s first underwater crocodile viewing gallery to come up in Byculla Zoo by first week of April

Vijay Nighot, chief engineer from the civic body’s building maintenance department that is carrying out the construction work, said that the facility will replicate the natural habitat of the reptiles.

“This viewing gallery is being constructed like a natural marshy habitat that will have a transparent glass window in the perimeter through which visitors can enjoy an unhindered view of the reptiles,” Nighot told the Indian Express.

He said that the viewing area is being divided into two sections. There will be an elevated platform, through which visitors can enjoy an elevated view. There will also be another viewing gallery, a little below the ground level that will provide an underwater view of the animals, similar to an aquarium.

Inside the enclosure, there will be natural vegetation like shrubs and bushes.

“We are also installing ozonation filters that will keep the water filtered for many days and prevent the formation of algae on the water bodies,” Nighot said.

Dr Sanjay Tripathi, director of the zoo, said this will be the first zoo in Asia to have its own underwater crocodile viewing gallery. Tripathi said that the zoo management has already made requests to the Nandankanan Zoo in Odisha and Solapur Zoo in Maharashtra for acquiring five gharials and five crocodiles that will be housed in this new enclosure.

“At present, the crocodiles and gharials that we have are being kept in a quarantine facility. Once the facility is ready, all the new reptiles will be released for viewing. We are targeting an April first week deadline so that we can open it before the summer vacation season, during which the zoo records a heavy footfall of visitors,” Tripathi said.

For the time being, the main crowd pullers in Byculla zoo are the penguins and Royal Bengal tigers. Earlier on January 1, 2023, the zoo recorded a footfall of 32,820 visitors and generated a revenue of Rs 13.78 lakh, making it the centre’s highest single-day income so far.