CNN Animal alert: India to revamp dozens of old zoos

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India to revamp dozens of old zoos

07/04/05 02:49 AM, EDT

India, under fire from environmentalists for failing to protect its

tiger population, will replace dozens of its old and crammed zoos

with sprawling near-natural habitats.

Read the full story at

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/07/04/india.zoo.reut/index.html

 

India to revamp dozens of old zoos

 

CALCUTTA, India (Reuters) -- India, under fire from environmentalists

for failing to protect its tiger population, will replace dozens of

its old and crammed zoos with sprawling near-natural habitats.

 

Officials said on Saturday animals will be kept in conditions as

close to nature as possible. In many of India's 164 zoos, wild

animals live in small, dank and often stinking cages and enclosures.

 

" We have already identified 40 zoos that need to be replaced with

near-natural enclosures in keeping with the new zoo policy, " said

Bipul Chakraborty, scientific officer of the Central Zoo Authority,

which regulates zoos in India.

 

Animal rights have become a hot button issue in India after reports

in March said all tigers at the Sariska tiger reserve in a western

region had been killed by poachers. There were 16-18 tigers in

Sariska a year ago.

 

Some animal rights groups have said tigers could be suffering a

similar fate in other sanctuaries across India, forcing Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh to launch a police investigation.

 

This week, police arrested the country's most wanted poacher.

 

India's endangered tiger population has fallen from some 40,000 a

century ago to about 3,700 mainly because of poaching. Some

environment groups put the number at less than 2,000.

 

Not for entertainment

 

Animal rights groups have demanded that zoos be abolished as

entertainment centers, saying animals should be kept in captivity

only for conservation.

 

" We are against the idea of zoos as centres of entertainment, " said

Debasish Chakraborty of the People for Animals (PFA), a leading

animal rights group.

 

" Having a shed over their heads and concrete floors under their feet

is not the wild animals' idea of living close to nature. "

 

Five years ago, a nationwide debate over administration of zoos was

sparked after a mysterious disease killed 11 tigers in a zoo in

eastern India.

 

In 2001, India's Supreme Court banned circuses from using animals in

their shows.

 

Most zoos in India's big cities were started by British colonialists

with little thought about animal rights.

 

" We have asked many zoos to decrease the number of their animal

exhibits so that there is enough space for the remaining ones, " said

the zoo authority's Chakraborty.

 

Officials decided this week to shift India's oldest zoo in Calcutta,

set up 130 years ago, to outside the city limits to provide more room

and natural conditions for its animals.

 

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