Govt reply sought on transfer of crocodiles

The Madras High Court on Friday ordered notice to the State Chief Wildlife Warden, Central Zoo Authority, Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, and Greens Zoological, Rescue & Rehabilitation Centre, Gujarat to respond within four weeks in a plea challenging the government’ s approval to transfer 1,000 crocodiles from Madras Crocodile Bank Trust to Jam Nagar in Gujarat.

The first bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala passed the orders on hearing a plea filed by Dr K Swamy, a city-based animal activist as well as an ex-serviceman.

The petitioner prayed for a direction to restrain the permission granted by the State and the Central Zoo Authority to a Zoological Centre in Jam Nagar for transferring 1000 crocodiles from Tamil Nadu to Gujarat, as the permission granted is unlawful and suffers from various discrepancies.

The respondent, a private zoo in Gujarat had gotten permission with a layout to operate the zoo only in 7300 square feet of land and they can accommodate only 56 crocodiles, according to the petitioner.

“However, the central zoo authority’s act of allowing the application to transfer 1000 crocodiles when provision is made only for 56 is illogical and illegal. Also, the grant of permission to a private centre to operate the zoo is not valid because it is against the Wild Life (Protection) (Amendment) Act, 1991 and the Recognition of Zoo Rules 2009, ” the petitioner argued.

He added that the recognition of the centre as a ‘Mini Zoo’ is incorrect despite the area of land and quantity of animals proposed in the master layout being more and this would be a violation of norms. He further prayed for a direction to order CBI or any other independent agencies to probe into this matter. Recording the submissions, the bench directed the respondents to submit their responses within four weeks.