Animals at Jijamata Udyan are ill-nourished and suffer from various diseases: Activists.
Spread over a 48-acre expanse, the Jijamata Udyan in Byculla provides that much- needed bit of green cover to the concrete jungle that is Mumbai.
The only other such green zone in the city is the 104 square-kilometre Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Not surprisingly then, both are in the public eye. While encroachment is a huge and perpetual problem at the latter, the plight of animals housed in the zoo at Jijamata Udyan is a cause for concern.
“The wild animals are being held captive in a hostile environment. Everything from their food to their exercise requirement is neglected,” says Sunish Subramanian, Secretary, Plant and Animal Welfare Society, Mumbai (PAWS-Mumbai), pointing at a python crawled into a tiny water bowl in its glass enclosure. Another python, housed in a slightly bigger open enclosure, has crawled under a water pipe, in search of water.
On his walk through the zoo on Thursday afternoon, Subramanian came across a very weak baby pond heron. “I took the bird to the veterinary-in-charge at the zoo, but they refused to accept the bird or treat it. The attitude of the zoo officials is shocking. They have no idea how to handle the animals.” Without treatment, the tiny bird died in a couple of hours at the zoo.
Subramanian alleges that the snake enclosure is poorly lit. “The right temperature is not maintained inside the enclosure, which is too small for movement. People tease the snakes because they do not move easily, and even spit around the enclosure as the paan-stains around reveal. “ According to the animal activist, the rainy season is a particularly bad time for the animals as water seeps into all the cages, especially the lion, tiger, hyena and leopard cages.
On Wednesday, volunteers from PAWS-Thane, who had inspected the zoo posing as visitors, released a report on their visit. According to the report, many animals at the zoo have injuries while some suffer from skin diseases. Besides, polythene bags and gutkha packets were finding their way into the premises, the report says.
“The enclosures are unsafe for people as well as for the animals. And the zoo does not have any trained staff, other than the officials,” says Nilesh Bhanage, general secretary and founder trustee - PAWS. When the PAWS team visited the zoo, they found people feeding the ducks, monkeys and crocodiles, he adds.
PAWS has submitted its report to the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), the nodal authority whose guidelines are mandatory for zoos. These guidelines are often breached, animal activists say. However, Dr MS Karawale, assistant superintendent veterinarian, Byculla Zoo, denies that the animals are in poor condition.
“They are neither sick nor injured. Besides, inspections have to be carried out by an authorised body like the CZA, not some NGO,” he says.
