Safari, a distant dream at zoo

he failure of the Nehru Zoological Park authorities in acquiring a fleet of compact vehicles continues to rob scores of visitors of a safari drive through the 400-acre sprawling facility.

The safari park complex at the zoo has four safaris earmarked for tiger, lion, bear and bison where visitors are taken in barricaded vehicles even as animals roam around freely. The leisurely drive was very popular with visitors as it used to start from the lion area and wend its way through the spaces earmarked for tigers, bear and bison, traversing around 5 km an hour.

But the drive was stopped in the month of January. The move followed complaints of vehicles breaking down in the safari area a few times and causing concern among visitors.

In November last year, a packed vehicle broke down in the middle of a tiger safari, sending shivers down the spine of both – visitors and authorities. Stranded visitors were shifted to another vehicle and brought out safely.

While closing down the safaris, it was decided to reopen the facility only with a new fleet of vehicles. However, apathy and administrative delay in acquiring four vehicles not only continue to deny the pleasure of a safari drive to visitors but also revenue to the zoo.

While the zoo curator, Gopi Ravi, maintained that the process was on to acquire vehicles appropriately reinforced for the safari, others pointed out that the long-drawn administrative process had entangled the proposal.

Mr. Ravi expressed hope that vehicles would be gotten at the earliest and safari restarted by Dasara. “An estimated Rs.80 lakh has been sanctioned already and we will have the vehicles soon,” he said. The zoo is looking for environment-friendly vehicles, preferably those that run on CNG, he said. “If we wanted petrol or diesel vehicles, there would have been many options.”

“We doubt if visitors thronging the zoo in large numbers during the coming festival and holiday season will be able to take advantage of the safari,” admitted an official, on condition of anonymity. The Nehru Zoo has 24 tigers and 23 lions.

In November last year, a packed vehicle broke down in the middle of a tiger safari, sending shivers down the spine of both – visitors and authorities

Safari, a distant dream at zoo

The facility, put on hold from January, is yet to be resumed as authorities have failed to acquire vehicles for the purpose