Visitors near the enclosure of leopards. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 22: Visitors will have a better view of leopards to be kept in a newly built open-air enclosure at the Nandankanan Zoological Park.

The park will be the third zoo in the country after Gangtok and Aizawl to have such an enclosure with an 8,000-volt solar powered electric fence for housing leopards.

The enclosure is designed in a manner that visitors can have a clear view of the animals. The visitor’s area will have no mesh wire fencing but a low concrete wall for protection.

The enclosure is likely to be opened on or before the foundation day of the zoo on December 29. The construction of the enclosure is, however, complete.

Leopards are usually kept inside closed enclosures with the entire area under an iron mesh structure, because the animals are expert climbers and can climb up any kind of fencing. The new enclosure will have such an arrangement that if at all, a leopard manages to climb up the wall and touches the outer layer of fencing, an instant electric current of 8,000-volt will strike it for a moment forcing it to retreat to its enclosure.

Principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) S.S. Srivastava said: “The new enclosure is scientifically designed to ensure not only a better view of the animals for the visitors, but also the safety for them.”

State wildlife board member and eminent wildlife scientist L.A.K. Singh said: “The new approach is better and safer, because leopards are known for their climbing abilities. It will prove to be a better enclosure as visitors will have a better view of the animal.”

Singh remembered his early days of crocodile research at Tikarpara during 1975-76, when fencing for crocodiles were designed with inverted iron plates on the top of the fence, so that when a crocodile tried to cross the wall, its snout hit it and it never tried to cross again.

Zoo assistant director K.L. Purohit said: “The fence around the enclosure is a one-metre high concrete wall. On top of it, there is a four-metre high iron mesh. Around two-metre high inverted steel plates are placed on it. And above all, there is the solar fence. Therefore, even if an animal somehow crosses the barrier, it will finally come down after getting the electric shock.”

Though the enclosure next to the veterinary hospital inside the zoo is ready, people can only see it from a distance now as the gate is yet to be opened formally. Even before its inauguration, the enclosure is attracting the visitors’ attention with its unusual shape and design.