Beef for lions in SGNP, for a while

Around 300 packets of 900 gms each were brought to the national park.

sanjay gandhi national park, beef, animal husbandry

Boneless meat at SGNP.

Captive wild animals at Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) got a brief respite from the beef ban imposed in the state with fresh stock of buffalo meat that came in on Friday evening. The meat came from the animal husbandry department’s Quality Control Laboratory at Goregaon, said SGNP officials.

Around 300 packets of 900 gms each were brought to the national park. “These are meat samples that are tested by the quality control facility before export. Finally, at least for a few days, our animals can go back to their usual, favourite food,” said Shailesh Deore, superintendent of the lion and tiger safari.

Newsline had first reported on March 16 that the 24 captive leopards, nine tigers and two lions were being fed chickens as the SGNP officials were not getting their share of beef from Deonar slaughter house following the beef ban in the state. Although slaughter of water buffalo is allowed in the state, beef dealers have stopped this too at Deonar abattoir and at many other abattoirs in the state as a mark of protest.

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“Chicken is lean meat and more ‘fibrey’. These animals are used to beef and we do not even feed them mutton or pork because it has too much fat. These are captive animals, who, as it is, do not get enough exercise like their free counterparts,” said Dr Sanjiv Pinjarkar, SGNP vet.

According to Deore, on a daily basis, lions at SGNP consume 7 kg of meat, tigers 9 kg and male leopards 2.5 kg. Female leopards consume 2 kg of meat every day.

While the current stock should last SGNP a few days, test sample stock at the Quality Control Centre should last another 10-12 days, said Dr Vasant Kulkarni, deputy commissioner of Quality Control Lab.

“This is the previous meat stock before the ban. Since there is no slaughtering at Deonar now, we are getting meat from an exporter in Aurangabad, where they still have a lot of buffaloes left. We have definitely seen a decrease in the amount of meat coming to us for testing after the ban as many abattoirs have stopped culling even buffaloes,” Kulkarni added.

anjali.lukose@expressindia.com

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