The day guns boomed in zoo

The river Cooum was a mute witness to the biggest massacre of animals in a day.

Madras had a long tradition of exhibiting animals. A choicely-kept menagerie in the Nawabs’ palace at Chepauk was given to establish a zoo in the museum compound on the banks of the Cooum. One of the earliest in India, the zoo moved to People’s Park once again close to the Cooum expanded into a delightful collection of species and easily became the finest assortment in the sub-continent. But then in the 1940s, the war that had engulfed all the continents crept closer to Madras. Its citizens waited with bated breath as it became clear that the Japanese could bomb them at any moment.

Trenches were dug and bomb shelters made. But in the preparations for the war one unpleasant job could not be overlooked. What if a stray bomb opened up the zoological garden?

What if the wild animals already hungry were let loose by an act of war? The nerves of the citizens were in a high-strung mode and no price was too high to calm them.

The Government of Madras had given clear indications to the Corporation of the city which ran the zoo. The animals were valuable but they certainly were not more priceless than citizens’ lives. Frantic efforts were made to save the animals. The town of Erode was willing to accept the wild animals but the Railways said that it could transport them only after April 16th, 1942. But the final culling order from the government to dispose of the animals came on April 11th and so the guns were loaded on the 12th. The Malabar police moved into the zoo to cull the carnivores. In what is potentially a world record for the number of rare animals slaughtered in such a fleeting time, three lions, six lionesses, four tigers, eight leopards, four bears and a black panther were shot in the matter of an hour. For accounting purposes, the animals shot were valued at Rs 4,568. The tigers were considered the biggest loss being valued at Rs 475 and lions at Rs 282.