The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has “cautioned” former Delhi zoo director, Amitabh Agnihotri, to be “careful in the future”. He would, however, not face any disciplinary action, an official said.
Multiple irregularities in the Delhi zoo, including false post-mortem reports of animals, were found during his tenure by a 2016 report by D.N. Singh, then Member Secretary of the Central Zoo Authority. A new report, which was submitted to the Delhi High Court, by a five-member high-level committee, had also flagged irregularities during his tenure at the zoo.
“Based on the recommendations of the report [five-member committee], we issued a letter last week to the former director and cautioned him to be careful in the future. He won’t face any other action,” an official of MoEF&CC said. The official said that the Ministry has given a slew of recommendations to fix legacy problems at the zoo.
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When reached out, Mr. Agnihotri refused to comment and said that he was “out of Delhi”.
Terming the problems at the zoo as “criminal conspiracy by zoo officials”, animal rights activist Gauri Maulekhi said that the authorities usually spare the higher officials and only go after the lower rank officials.