The Hindu : Finishing touches to anti-rabies drive in zoo

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 26, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Finishing touches to anti-rabies drive in zoo

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM May 25. The authorities at the city zoo have sealed a gate and have launched a disinfection drive by way of putting finishing touches to the anti-rabies drive launched after two deers recently succumbed to infection.

The elephant enclosure where the two deers had been housed is being disinfected by sprinkling lime. The shrubs and other vegetation near the boundary wall of the enclosure is also being cleared. According to the Zoo Director, C. S. Yelakki, no other animal has so far shown any symptoms of being infected with rabies.

Mr. Yelakki told The Hindu that on investigation by the zoo superintendent it was found that packs of dogs used to enter the Museum premises by crawling under a gate leading out of the premises by the side of the Museum Police Station. This gate has now been sealed using iron sheets and will be bricked up within a week. No other breach has been found in the zoo's perimeter, he said.

Meanwhile, work on various new enclosures being designed as part of the ongoing modernisation drive is progressing. The enclosure for the Capuchin monkeys that has been set up adjacent to the Macaque enclosure is almost ready for inauguration.

Similarly, work on the enclosures being readied for the Common Langurs and the Nilgiri Langurs is expected to be over in about a month's time. All the three enclosures are expected to be inaugurated simultaneously.

According to the zoo authorities, the ongoing construction of the new lion enclosure is expected to take another two months. Once the work on this enclosure is over, the zoo can turn its attention to preparing the ground for the proposed enclosure for the panthers which is scheduled to come up in between the new lion enclosure and the enclosure for the tigers.

However, the design for the panther enclosure is not yet ready. Similarly, the zoo is also waiting for the designs of the `nocturnal home' and the reptile house to be submitted to it.

One modernisation-related project that is, however, dragging on is the walk-through aviary whose design has been based on the aviary in the Singapore zoo. The hitch here is that the zoo has not been able to get any agency to construct the aviary as per design.

The State PWD has already expressed its inability to carry out this task which is said to pose a number of engineering headaches. The ball is now in the court of the LBS centre here where too there has been a delay of some months. It is learnt that the chief engineer PWD has called a meeting on May 27 to take a final decision on the matter.

Once, these projects are through, most of the major modernisation-related works would have been completed.

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