JUNE 14: The inmates of Veermata Jijabai Udyan, Byculla, live like they are meant to: like animals. On display along with various specimens of the animal and bird kingdom in Mumbai's lone zoo is neglect and ignorance.So, watering holes are often empty, elephants are chained almost all day long and animals inbred in contravention of zoo regulations.A hippo, Guru, dies on June 6 after falling into the moat surrounding its enclosure and lies there for at least 24 hours. In fact, animal mortality rates at the zoo are high, with 15 animals dying in 1996 and 12 last year. This rate is normal, stated Dr M V Wani, Deputy Superintendent of the Zoo. But if the conditions and efforts at maintenance are anything to go by, not unusual.In 1995, inbreeding between two Gir lions resulted in two retarded litters. None of the five cubs survived. Zoo regulations do not permit inbreeding, but authorities said they ``wanted to take a chance.'' And in 1996, the zoo gave four kangaroos from Japan a welcome that turned out tobe short-lived: three of them died within a month from an infection due to climactic changes.Some of the pools and troughs, the animals' watering holes, stay empty, or dotted with solidified algae mass. Dr Wani claimed that they are cleaned every fortnight, even as he pointed to a labour shortage. ``Even once a fortnight is too infrequent,'' alleged AHIMSA's Dr Satnam Ahuja. ``Animals defecate in the water and algae decreases the oxygen level considerably.'' An eight foot-deep moat of a black bear has a shallow layer of dirty water, even as numerous sprinklers water the gardens and water tanks quench visitors' thirst. The enclosure lacks barricades, but Dr Wani reasoned, ``The bear is intelligent enough not to fall into the moat.'' And the ignorance of basics can get innovative, and cruel: the bird enclosure has an inner glass wall to make them ``feel they are in natural surroundings''.Said Dr Ahuja, ``I've seen birds bang against the wall, as they don't realise it is glass.'' The elephants' feetare tied with chains that severely restrict their movement and prevent them from taking even a single step forward. The chains come off for an hour each morning, when they are bathed and taken on walks. The pachyderms have reportedly been chained like this for 16 years. Although the zoo commissioned plans to build a one acre elephant enclosure in 1991, work on the enclosure is yet to take off.``Elephants usually eat for about 18 hours a day. But we observed that they get rationed meals and water only thrice a day,'' alleged Dr Ahuja. Dr Wani, however, said the elephants are fed every half hour.In the absence of trees to swing from, the monkeys are forced to use wired fences, tyres and metal swings. The cramped enclosures can also trigger off fights between animals, as in the case of the hippo Guru, who either slipped or was thrown into the moat after a slugfest with his neighbour.A rhino even lost its horn by rubbing it against the wall, a behaviour which is , confirmed Dr Wani, typical of rhinos incaptivity. ``Only when there is a lot of space can this be prevented," he stated. But expansion plans are expensive and require the sanction of the Central Zoo Authority of India, added Dr Wani.
