Summer care: Alipore Zoo installs coolers to keep habitants cool
KOLKATA: The authorities of Alipore Zoological Garden, one of the top tourist hotspots in the city during the festive season, have made special arrangements to keep the animals cool during summer season.
“The Kangaroos need special care in summer. We have put coolers inside Kangaroo enclosure. Water is sprinkled inside the Kangaroo enclosure at regular intervals to keep the temperature low. For other inhabitants of the zoo, we have made special arrangements to keep them cool through the season,” said Asis Kumar Samanta, director of Alipore Zoological Garden.
He reiterated that juicy fruits like cucumber and watermelon are fed to the monkeys, birds and chimpanzees. Along with healthy food, 250 to 300 ml lassi is given to the Chimpanzees.
Regular baths are provided to the elephants, tigers, chimpanzees, emus, and tortoises to keep their body temperatures normal.
The carnivores are given 1.5 kg to 2 kg less meat than usual as meat is heat producing.
The Alipore Zoological Garden, closed on March 17 in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, was thrown open to the public on October 2.
Visitors have to buy online tickets from the official website (www.kolkatazoo.in/new) to enter the zoo premises. They will have to pass through a sanitization channel at the entrance area before approaching the ticket counter.
Two counters are open for verification of tickets. Once the verification is done, security guards will conduct the thermal screening of the visitors.
At present, the footfall of visitors is between 400 and 600 on a daily basis. Earlier, during pre-COVID 19 pandemic period, the footfall of visitors used to be between 3000 and 4000 on a normal day. During festive seasons such as Durga Puja or Christmas (yuletide) the per day footfall used to be between 6000 and 10,000 per day.