Patna: The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) plans to rank all Indian zoos for the first time.

"Recently, a senior CZA functionary had visited Patna and during his interaction with the officials, he had shared this information," a senior official of the environment and forest department told The Telegraph.

There are 166 licensed zoos in the country.

"Zoo administration, cleanliness, manpower, animal feed storage, condition of animal enclosures, zoo hospital, number of rescued animals, rehabilitation of captive animals in the wild and breeding of different species will be some of the factors on the basis of which zoos will be ranked," said the forest department official.

Patna zoo is hoping for a good ranking. "We hope to be among the top 10 zoos of the country," a zoo official said, adding that the CZA rankings were likely to be released in three months.

Spread across 153 acres, Patna zoo houses over 1,300 animals of 108 species. It also has over 10,000 trees belonging to 150 varieties in addition to a dedicated garden of medicinal plants of 60 varieties.