Dead penguin: Activists go to cops

NGO files complaint alleging negligence, asks Central Zoo Authority officials to visit decrepit Byculla zoo

Animal activists filed a police complaint on Monday over the death of Dory, a female Humboldt penguin at Byculla zoo. They alleged that the BMC and zoo authorities were negligent and demanded an investigation. Plant & Animals Welfare Society (PAWS), Mumbai, an NGO, also wrote to Central Zoo Authority officials in Delhi, asking them to visit the zoo and check the living conditions of the seven remaining penguins.

On Sunday, a one-and-a-halfyear-old female penguin named Dory died of liver dysfunction and an intestinal infection. The civic body had spent Rs2.57 crore to buy the South American species, native to Peru and Chile. They were brought to Mumbai on July 26 despite criticism from animal activists.

“We have filed a complaint citing the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, as the penguin was diagnosed with liver and intestinal infections. It is possible that the food given to the birds did not suit them,” said Sunish Subramaniam Kunju, secretary, Paws-mumbai.

Humboldt penguins are a protected species, categorised as ‘vulnerable’ – which means it may become endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction improve – by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Kunju added that the penguins should be transferred to a safer sanctuary. “We demand a thorough investigation and inspection of the quarantined area where the penguins are being housed before they are put on display,” he said. If the penguins’ living conditions are found to be poor, the zoo’s license should be cancelled, he added.

Citizens have also started an online petition called ‘release penguins kept at inadequate zoo to a suitable sanctuary’. It has garnered 819 signatures so far.

Officials from the Wildlife Trust of India were sceptical about whether other zoos had the infrastructure and expertise needed to house the Humboldt penguins. Jose Louies, head of trade control, Wildlife Trust of India, said, “Even international zoos like the National Zoological Park in Washington had a hard time looking after these birds.”

HT had reported earlier this month that Byculla zoo is likely to get another 10 animals as a part of its Rs150-crore revamp, which was approved by the Central Zoo Authority in 2012. Currently, the 53-acre zoo houses 429 animals.

But environmentalists and animal welfare activists said the zoo needed to be revamped before introducing new species. “One bird has escaped the misery faced by all wildlife in the living hell called Byculla zoo,” said Stalin Dayanand, project director of Vanashakti, an NGO.