Eighty birds missing from Chhat Bir zoo

When contacted, Chhat Bir Zoo director Venod Sharma said that three members of security staff, two chowkidars and the security incharge had been chargesheeted and transferred to Ludhiana. Further action will be taken after they file replies to the chargesheets, he added. The case of the missing birds is the third such incident in the past three years. Earlier, a goat had disappeared in the wee hours on October 19, while the zoo staff was busy celebrating Diwali. Even four months after the incident, Banur police remains clueless as to the fate of the animal.

In October, 1996, a pair of otters disappeared under mysterious circumstances from the zoo.

Zoo officials, when contacted, said that they suspected the involvement of a gang which had been active for the past two years. Only a vigilance inquiry can solve the mystery behind repeated incidents of missing birds and animals from the zoo, they added. They also disclosed that a peacock, had been shifted to a farmhouse in Sirsa which belongs to a senior Punjab politician.