Jamnagar zoo to get 13 elephants from a camp in Gadchiroli
The elephants will be shifted to the Jamnagar centre in two groups. The first group is likely to be shifted this month.
3 min read
Justice Waziri observed, “Everything was done in this! I don’t think your forest department has worked this hard on any matter in the recent past, not in living memory”.(Representative image)The Maharashtra forest department will send 13 captive elephants from a camp in Gadchiroli to the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom, which is being set up by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) in Jamnagar district of Gujarat.
The Jamnagar centre, touted as “one of the world’s biggest zoos”, will be spread over 250 acres. “We have 16 elephants at Kamlapur elephant camp in Gadchiroli. After requests from locals, it was decided that we will keep three elephants in the camp and the rest will be sent to the centre (Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom),” said Sunil Limaye, Principal Conservator of Forests (Wildlife).
The Maharashtra forest department recently received permission from the Project Elephant division of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to shift the elephants to Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom. Project Elephant, set up in 1992, provides technical and financial support to states for wildlife management of the free-ranging Asian Elephants.
The elephants will be shifted to the Jamnagar centre in two groups. The first group is likely to be shifted this month.
The forest department has also sought information from other rescue centres and zoos in the state to see if any more animals can be sent to Reliance’s rescue centre in Jamnagar.
All the elephants to be shifted from Maharashtra are untrained and have attracted many tourists. Reliance’s Radhe Krishna Elephant Welfare Trust at Jamnagar will shift the animals.
The Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom was approved by the 33rd meeting of the Central Zoo Authority on February 12, 2019. In 2020, 12 leopards captured from the wild in Gujarat region were shifted to the zoo. These leopards were captured by the forest department after they attacked humans.
As per the layout plan shared by CZA, the centre at Jamnagar will have conservation and breeding areas, water bodies, interpretation centre, rescue and rehabilitation centre, and different areas with enclosures for exotic animals, wild animals from Gujarat, desert animals, rodents, dragons and lizards and animals found in other parts of India.
The exotic animals are expected to include giraffe, zebra, ostrich, kangaroo, white rhino, African lion, African elephant, cheetah, jaguar, pygmy hippo, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutang, lemur, komodo dragons, green and yellow anacondas.
You May Like
Photos
