Two weeks ago, Ahmedabad’s airport was buzzing with the roar of animals at night. Many exotic animals, including leopards and tigers, were brought from South Africa to Ahmedabad airport. There were 27 tigers, 10 bears, 10 big American wild cats, 7 leopards, 10 porcupines, 4 demanados and 3 oaklets, but some exotic animals whose names have been heard for the first time. All these animals were carefully brought here in a Russian cargo plane and taken to the zoo under construction in Jamnagar. Animals from abroad and other states will continue to arrive at Ahmedabad airport for the next two years. Earlier also, the animals were unloaded at Ahmedabad airport and taken to Jamnagar. The reason for moving to Jamnagar is that a huge zoo is being set up here by Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Company. Currently, there are claims that Jamnagar Zoo will be the largest in the world. Preparations are in full swing and there are rumors that even the government cannot do such a thing.
In the near future, Jamnagar Zoo will become a center of attraction in the country and the world. For this, approval has been received from the Central and State Governments and 280 acres of land has been allotted for this. The project was stalled due to Corona. Within two years, the zoo is expected to open to the public. The zoo is named ‘Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom’. At present, an exercise is underway to make this zoo the largest zoo in the world and it is being promoted in the same way.
When Parimal Nathwani of Reliance Corporate Affairs spoke to the press about this, he said that the zoo would be bigger than the Singapore Zoo and would house a wide variety of animals and birds. One such mammoth zoo was set up by the Singapore government. Millions of tourists visit here during the day every year. The zoo is spread over 69 acres in Singapore. The entire Jamnagar Zoo project is being implemented under the supervision of Mukesh Ambani’s youngest son Anant Ambani.
The zoo’s master plan is also available on the Internet and provides a brief overview of how the zoo will be built. However, one of the details behind all these exercises and claims is that even though it is said that this will be the largest zoo in the world, in fact the ‘Venkateswara Zoological Park’ of Tirupati in our country is much bigger than this. The area is 3000 acres, which is 12 times bigger than the zoo in Jamnagar. Apart from this, Chennai’s ‘Arigner Anna Zoological Park’, Bhubaneswar’s ‘Nandankanan Biological Park’, Guwahati’s Assam Zoo, Hyderabad’s ‘Nehru Zoological Park’ and Visakhapatnam’s ‘Indira Gandhi Zoological Park’ are in the state. Powered by Blogger. Also, the zoo that has been operating in the country for years has become a specialty of all of them. Such as Sakkarbagh Zoo in Junagadh. The zoo was built in 1863 by Nawab Khanji-2 of Junagadh. It also has an area of 207 acres. Now the zoo has become a breeding center for lions, especially in Asia. In addition to the wild donkey, the Asian chinkara is also home.
Obviously, Reliance does not behave like a company in this whole project, the paramount objective is the protection and care of the animals. However, reaching out to Reliance in terms of cost may not be affordable to other governments and the example was set in February 2021. Reliance Zoo took 2 pairs of leopards from Assam Zoo and sent 4 zebras brought from Israel to Assam Zoo against it. The decision was opposed by the Chirkhana Suraksha Manch. The forum has been concerned about the security of the Assam Zoo for the last 6 years and has been constantly raising its voice for it. Assam Zoo was established in 1957. The only breeding center for leopards in the whole country is here. Now that an animal care system has been set up and maintained for many years, it is better for the animal to maintain that condition. The exchange of animals with Reliance Zoo has also violated the guidelines of the Central Zoo Authority.
According to this guideline, animals can be exchanged only between a government zoo. This zoo of Ambani is private. The exchange of animals was also questioned by the Congress party. Naturally, other laws regarding zoos and animals are strictly enacted, but it is just as easy to break them because these laws are nowhere to be found in the lives of everyday people. The attitude towards animals is also on the lower level in our country. Otherwise no zoo animals can be exchanged without knowing the long track record. If Reliance’s zoo is approved in 2019, then the question is how they got the approval.
However, at present the government seems liberal in approving the Jamnagar zoo. One reason for this may be the construction of a zoo on a public-private initiative. The question is whether the government can build a zoo today on the scale of the zoos that were built by the government in the post-independence period. The previous zoo features open spaces, special arrangements for animals, as well as animal shelters. All this work takes years and years and even then it is challenging to maintain it continuously.
This challenge can only be overcome if you are an animal lover. There is a professionalism here today too. There is more to it now than just the exercise of men. Even at the Reliance Zoo, it would not be surprising to see more of a part of technology than animal grooming by humans. Naturally, there is a huge investment in this whole project and when special animals are included in the zoo, the investment increases and so does the approval process. For instance, 13 elephants have been sent to Jamnagar Zoo by the Forest Department of Maharashtra. There were a total of 16 elephants in the Gadchiroli camp in Maharashtra and another 13 have been brought to Jamnagar with 3 in that camp.
Reliance’s project has relaxed animal exchange rules in some places, but some have benefited. For example, the Crocodile Bank of Madras has been complaining of insufficient funds for the protection of crocodiles for the last several years. Despite making several representations to the government in this regard, no action was taken. Now those crocodiles have been brought to Jamnagar. In some ways, the zoo in Jamnagar will be a boon for the animals. However, looking at the structure and history of the zoo, it is clear that the construction of the zoo may be done with more capital but its preservation cannot be done without animal love.
