Sitting in Darjeeling hills, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will electronically lay the foundation stone of a safari park-cum-zoo in the plains on Thursday. Around noon when she presses the button, officially, a Rs. 250-crore project, riddled with some controversy, will be inaugurated near Siliguri.
The Rs. 250 crore-project – adjacent to the populous Siliguri city which is the gateway to entire north-eastern India – will house tigers, leopards, marble and jungle cats, Himalayan black bears, rhinos, a variety of reptiles and birds.
Objections, however, are raised by some city-based environmentalists. Carving out a zoo from a sanctuary – Mahananda – is ‘atrocious’, the environmentalists say. Minister of North Bengal Development Department Gautam Deb claimed such concerns are ‘speculative’ and erroneous.
Several mega projects to boost the tourism industry are coming up in the picturesque districts of north Bengal. One among those is located in Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary in Siliguri. Nearly, 700 square kilometre of forest land will be converted to a zoo, with a toy train, one-km-long walk-trail and separate parks for animals, reptiles, and birds. A Nagpur-based tourism consultancy firm, Ashfaque Ahmed Consultancy Services, has done the feasibility survey and the Central Zoo Authority has approved the project ‘in principle’.
However, the Central Zoo Authority, who approved the project after initial resistance, has laid specific conditions while giving a go-ahead to the project.
The Central Zoo Authority has asked the State Zoo Authority to close down or de-list other zoos in north Bengal in a letter in April 2014, a copy of which is with The Hindu . The master plan ‘will be studied thoroughly to approve it before granting recognition in lieu of zoos closed and de-listed’, the letter said. An advance of nearly Rs. 33 lakh has been made to the consultant.
The Ministeris seemingly excited about the project. “If you roam around in the forest, you will be deep inside a forest with the animal all around you,” said Mr. Deb.
Environmentalists, however, object to the idea. Many feel the authority will have to fell several trees in the sanctuary which is known for density of trees and orchids. “Very few – one or two trees may be felled – and the tourism infrastructure will be developed keeping the forest totally in place,” said Mr. Deb.
The other challenge is perhaps finding buyers, who will buy the idea to invest in resorts, toy trains, and other amenities inside the zoo as a mega tourism project about 50 km east of Siliguri is yet to get buyers after floating first tenders in March 2013. But then again that will be known when the tenders are floated.
