Patna, July 27: Inmates of the landmark city zoo are jostling for space because their human caretakers don’t have enough money to build enclosures for them on the sprawling park.
Officially called the Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, the zoo, spread over 153 acres of land, is home to over 1,100 animals. But the animals are confined to only 45 acres, less than 30 per cent of the zoo area. Ideally, the inmates should have at least 50 per cent of the area dedicated to their housing.
The reason for this housing horror? The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has refused to open the purse strings because the park’s authorities failed to utilise some Rs 50 lakh from a grant given seven years ago.
At present, the zoo has the capacity to house 20 ghariyals, but has 114 of them. Similarly a dozen rhinos are staying within an enclosure that can accommodate five. The space crunch can only get worse with three female rhinos expected to deliver in a year’s time.
The bears are in no better shape. The zoo has seven of them when it has space to house only three. The additional ones live in enclosures meant for hyenas. A couple of hippopotamus are also being kept in a temporary moat that does not meet norms laid down by the central authority. Even the enclosures of the birds are overcrowded.
The park has acres of empty space for building new enclosures for the animals. The authorities say their hands are tied because the CZA has refused to give money.
The central authority sanctions funds to zoos across the country for improving facilities for the animals. The Patna zoo has not received any for the last seven years because it failed to utilise funds given by the CZA in 2003.
The central authority had then sanctioned Rs 72.19 lakh to the Sanjay Gandhi park against the state schemes for improving amenities for the animals. However, the zoo officials could use only Rs 20 lakh. The remaining funds, totalling Rs 52.19 lakh, remained unutilised.
Officials in the Patna zoo cited upward revision of wages and material costs as the main reasons for the non-utilisation of funds.
The CZA had sanctioned the state scheme according to the old rates, as quoted at the time of submission of the proposal. No one from the forest department had explained the situation to the CZA. The communication gap led to the CZA refusing to entertain any more proposals from Bihar.
The CZA said that unless utilisation certificates of the funds, sanctioned in 2003, were submitted or returned, fresh grants would not be given to the Sanjay Gandhi park.
The park has submitted a Rs 25 crore master plan for approval by CZA. The central authority has said it will release the money only after the unused funds are returned by the state.
The state government has been providing funds to the park during this period. But the money is mainly used on maintenance and to meet recurring expenses.
The 1,100 and odd animals belonging to 101 different species are meanwhile forced to live in claustrophobic conditions.
There is a ray of hope for the animals though. The government has approved a proposal on returning the unused CZA funds.
Abhay Kumar, director of the Sanjay Gandhi park, told The Telegraph: “Returning the unspent funds will be of great help. It will pave the way for the release of fresh funds for the park in the future.” Kumar said the process of returning the unutilised funds would be completed shortly.
