Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Focus on plastic menace

By our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, MAY 1 . The death of a male Nilgiri Langur at the city zoo on April 27, following a surgery to remove plastic blocking its intestines, has once again focussed attention on the zoo's inability to prevent plastic material from being brought onto its premises. The zoo doctor had conducted emergency surgery on the 15-year-old male Nilgiri Langur, on April 26, after a scan and an X-ray test revealed the presence of foreign material in the pyloric region of the primate's body. This was later identified as fine strands of plastic.

Dr. Jayakumar told The Hindu here, today, that the primate collapsed and died about 30 hours after the surgery. The post-mortem revealed the presence of numerous lesions on the stomach-wall of the Langur, he said.

This is the seventh animal, since 1997 that the zoo has lost to plastic. On July 28 last year a female Nilgiri Langur died in a similar way. The post mortem then had revealed a whole plastic bag near the primate's colon. On December 23, 1997, the zoo lost a male hippo. During the post mortem rubber slippers and plastic carry-bags were found in the animal's intestinal tract. On September 30, 1998, 300 gm of plastic material were found inside the intestine of a male hog deer, which died that day. Similarly, 1.25 kg of plastic was found inside a female hog deer, which died on July 31, 1999. The same year, on September 22, a male Nilgiri Tahr died following complications arising from the consumption of plastic. On December 7, 2001, the zoo lost a female spotted deer to plastic. It is pointed out that the security staff at the zoo gates are not able to prevent visitors from taking in plastic material inside the zoo, which is a notified plastic-free zone.

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