It was supposed to be a win-win proposal for both parties. A pair of white lions, a pair of Siberian tigers, 15 ring-tailed coati, two llamas, and five squirrel monkeys for the Thiruvananthapuram Zoo, all in return for just three elephants for the Taygan Lions Park and Skazka Zoo in Yalta, Crimea, Russia.
However, the much-anticipated animal exchange appears to be mired in bureaucratic hurdles in the State. The Forest Department, it is learnt, is not keen on exchange of an endangered animal species.
Since the city zoo does not have elephants of its own, the jumbos will have to travel from the Kottoor elephant rehabilitation camp of the Forest Department. This, apparently, has also come in for some opposition.
A lot of expectations were riding on the transfer for both the zoos. While the city zoo would get to add some ‘heavyweights’ to the 100-odd species it already housed, thereby increasing its profile and seeing an increase in footfall, the Yalta zoo would be realising its 15-year-old dream of having elephants.
According to reports in sections of the Russian media, the Yalta zoo, after considering elephants from zoos in Africa and Europe, decided to go for Asian elephants since they are smaller and more manageable. An elephant house, too, was built at Taygan.
