INDIAN ZOOS Captive to poor management practices
It has been two-and-a-half decades since the Central Zoo Authority was set up to improve the lot of zoo inhabitants. Then why are animals still languishing and dying?
FOR YEARS, Lakshmi, 64, and Anarkali, 56, have been standing there almost like a figurine, bound by chains and isolated in individual cramped, concrete enclosures. The pool nearby keeps leaking and holds barely enough water for the giant Asiatic elephants to wallow and keep themselves cool. In a nearby cage, a rhesus macaque with contagious mange is freely mingling with other monkeys, at times scratching its rear vehemently against the rusted enclosure, oblivious of the fact that it can lead to severe tetanus infection. At one corner, over two dozen deer huddle in fear with barely anything to graze on. The picket gate that takes visitors dangerously close to striped hyenas remains tied with an old rag cloth. Welcome to the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo of Mumbai. Located in the city’s southern neighbourhood of Byculla, it is one of the country’s oldest zoos, dating back to the 1860s. While the authorities have managed to retain the grandness of its entrance, the zoo is being increasingly described as a “killer zone” with mammals, birds and reptiles dying in care. Media reports show over 480 inmates have died at Byculla zoo since 2010. The list includes exotic and protected species like emu, finches, hippopotamus, penguin, African grey parrot, a lioness and crocodiles. In 2016-17, it was left with 388 animals.
While officials at the zoo claim that a majority of deaths are owing to old age, what could be the possible explanation for the high number of deaths at Delhi’s National Zoological Park, set up only in 1959!
Sprawling over 75 hectares (ha) against the majestic backdrop of the Purana Quila, the National Zoological Park appears to fulfil both the objectives with which a zoo is set up—education and conservation. “Initially, it was thought that recreation is the only aim of zoos, but now education is our motto,” reads the website maintained by the zoo authority. While its lone African elephant, white tigers, birds of foreign feathers and several other rare species attract visitors from all over the country and abroad, sensitising them about species in the wild and their needs, the zoo provides training to veterinary and wildlife management students and Indian Forest Service probationers. From time to time, successful captive breeding of endangered brow-antlered deer and white tiger also brings the zoo to limelight. But despite the success, the living condition of its exhibits is no better than those at Byculla zoo, or, for that matter, in any other zoo (see ‘Care denied?’). In 201617, as many as 325 exhibits at Delhi zoo died due to reasons like tuberculosis, shock and senility. Only 1,202 are remaining now. Its security measures were heavily criticised in 2014 when a man fell into the enclosure of the white tiger named Vijay and died after being mauled by it.
“The condition of zoos is pathetic in the country,” admits a highly-placed official with the Central Zoo Authority (cza), an autonomous body constituted under the Wild Life (Protection) (Amendment) Act, 1991. “I am definitely going to join the anti-zoo movement post-retirement and lobby for closure of zoos,” he tells Down To Earth. But wasn’t cza set up to ensure better upkeep and care of captive animals?
Ambitious but toothless
Hopes were high when cza came into being in 1992. To give it proper direction, the Union government in 1998 introduced the National Zoo Policy. Living up to its mandate, cza in the past three decades has derecognised and shut down some 350 zoos that failed to improve or did not adhere to the prescribed standards. To ensure that the 167 recognised zoos are up to the mark, cza’s scientists conduct regular assessment of their functioning. Then, why has nothing much changed on the ground?
Animal rights activists list out a few reasons, and one of the primary issues they cite is the poor health of their exhibits—not just physical but also sexual and psychological. “Risk factors such as overcrowding, lack of space, filthy cages, unnatural environment, no enrichment and the prevalence of infections and diseases are inherent to a zoo scenario,” says Manilal Valliyate, who heads animals rights organisation peta-India. Because of loneliness and lack of access to their own kind, some also exhibit zoochosis—a stereotypical behaviour of chewing their own body parts, rocking, swaying or birds plucking their own feathers. But the problem stems from the fact that zoos in India do not even provide basic veterinarian care to their inmates. For instance, adds Valliyate, several zoos do not have permanent vets, let alone round-the-clock veterinary facility. Though dosage of a medicine has to be carefully calculated based on body weight, many zoos do not follow the protocol. More often than not drugs available with them are past their expiry date. Sterilisation of instruments used in operation can only be anyone’s guess. All these contribute to the high mortality of animals in zoos, he adds.
Gauri Maulekhi, animal rights activist in Delhi, offers another insight into the way zoos function. “In the absence of full time veterinarians, zoo authorities tie up with the animal husbandry department for treatment of their inmates. Since they are not trained in wildlife care, this leads to dangerous consequences,” she says. In 2006, at least 14 sloth bears at a bear centre near Agra died of rabies despite being vac-