Zoo director Raju Das begs to differ but a comparison between the Centre's prescription and the reality lays bare how cramped the Alipore facility is.
The 2009 notification of the environment and forest ministry states that a “large" zoo must have 75 hectares for 750 animals of 75 species, or 0.1 hectare for every animal on an average.
The Alipore zoo, in contrast, has only 18 hectares for as many as 1,300 animals of 130 species. The space for each inmate — 0.013 hectare — is at least 10 times less than the norm.
As for large mammals, the Central Zoo Authority prescribes around 1,000sq m for a pair of tigers and lions and 2,000sq m for a pair of rhinos and hippos. Going by the benchmark, the 22 animals of the four species the Alipore zoo has should get around 14,000sq m of enclosure space. The actual allotment is a lot less. Read the full report here.
Source: Jayanta Basu, The Telegraph, Kolkata.
