The State’s second animal rescue and rehabilitation centre is coming up in Mysore and it is expected to be ready by the end of next month.
Mysore zoo will establishthe centre in Koorgalli, off Mysore-Hunsur Road, on the outskirts of the city.
Disclosing this to The Hindu , Chief Conservator of Forest and Zoo Executive Director B.P. Ravi said work on building infrastructure for the rescue and rehabilitation centre is nearing completion. “By November-end or early December, we are planning to launch the centre,” he said.
Once the facility is launched, rescued and injured wild animals brought to the zoo by the Forest Department would be shifted to the new facility for rehabilitation.
The rescue centre was proposed as the zoo was lacking space to accommodate animals brought for rehabilitation on its premises.
The centre is being established in a portion of land at Koorgalli village, where 113.21 acres had been allotted to the Zoo Authority of Karnataka for establishing the country’s biggest gaur (Indian bison) conservation breeding centre. Mr. Ravi said Rs. 350 lakh had been sanctioned by the government and remaining amount was being funded by the zoo.
This is the second rescue centre in the State after the one at Bannerghatta Biological Park in Bangalore.
Mr. Ravi said the zoo cannot keep rescued wild animals on its premises for a longer period as such animals need independent space for their rehabilitation under natural conditions. The Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre of Wild Animals, the Indian Gaur Conservation Breeding Centre and the Conservation Centre for Indian Wolves, Dholes and Lion-tailed Macaque had been included in the first ever Master Plan of the zoo, which has been approved by the Central Zoo Authority.
According to the zoo, the Coordinated Conservation Breeding programme is the first-ever project of simultaneous breeding of critically-endangered species. The Bondla zoo in Goa would assist Mysore zoo in breeding Indian bison. Mysore zoo has the highest number of gaur species in its collection and is well-known for its captive breeding of Indian bisons.
