The Hindu : New Delhi News : Specialised medical care for zoo inmates

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 15, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Specialised medical care for zoo inmates

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI, OCT. 14. In the first ever nation level initiative to streamline and provide standardised medical care and health investigation facilities to 56 large, medium and small zoos and 106 mini zoos, deer parks and rescue centres across the country, the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has now finally put in place an ambitious project which took over four years in the making.

For this ambitious `National Zoo Animal Health Coordinated Programme', the CZA has identified six nodal veterinary colleges across the country to help them maintain good health of the animals in captivity and also analyse the large number of mysterious deaths of zoo animals, which has been a constant cause of worry for experts in the country.

The facility, which will begin full-fledge operations soon, will carry out systematic tests on infectious diseases on wild animals in Indian zoos and also look at the health of animals in captivity.

It will also provide record keeping facilities for tracking any "new" trace of ailments in the animal population. According to CZA officials, this programme will also help provide a centralised facility that would act as a resource bank to be used like a ready reference for zoos all over the country.

The institutions and universities identified for the operation -- Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Uttar Pradesh; Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology; Tamil Nadu University of Veterinary Sciences; Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture and Technology, Jammu; Assam Agriculture University; and Gujarat Agricultural University and Veterinary College -- have already been issued grants of 50 lakh each to help them set up various investigating facilities. Also, the CZA will also support one research fellow for taking up research activities in the related field at each of these institutes.

"The aim of the massive project is to provide strong diagnostic facilities and help keep the stock of captive animals healthy. Also, we realised that the zoos besides having a doctor in place had little else to help large animals with any new ailments or even infections that were coming up and also most of them had problem coordinating with specialised institutions. This new initiative will help streamline services provided to the zoo and assist us in relating them to any mass scale deaths in various wildlife sanctuaries,'' explained the CZA member secretary, B. R. Sharma.

Speaking about how the CZA is now ironing out any administrative problems, scientist Brij Kishor Gupta said: ""We have already provided financial assistance to the identified institutes and have started writing to zoos informing them about the facility, what would be available and also about which centre they would be affiliated to. ''

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