Report on Zoo management

Reports for college magazine and television on Zoo management

Report on Zoo management

Cukoo Shiklia
Sophia Girls School
Zoos play a crucial role in educating and spreading awareness about wild life. Ashok Kumar of the wild life protection society of India says that Central Zoo Authority was set up in 1992 to oversee the functioning of zoos all over the country. It has laid down a set of guidelines which look very impressive on paper. But the ground reality is very different. A complete overhaul of the zoo management system is needed. The CZA has not been able to ensure that guidelines are followed. Every time it tried to enforce the guidelines the state governments and municipalities running the zoos opposed it. Moreover, CZA has never taken any step to withdraw the licence of any zoo found violating the guidelines. Mere advice does not help.
In fact in March 19, 1998 the zoo at Nandan Kanan remained without power for five days due to lack of funds. Actually there is very little effort being made towards conservation of wild life over a period of time. Successful breeding in captivity became a yardstick for measuring how well a zoo was doing. This however led to the problem of over crowding because tigers and animals can not be reintroduced in the wild successfully. Hence over crowding in the zoos. At Nandan Kanan the maddening craze for white tiger cubs has led to frequent inbreeding. There should be a law to fix the number of animals that zoo can have.

The death of the 12 tigers at Nandan Kanan is the result of successive inbreeding among the tigers for inbreeding weakens the genes. It is a pity that the zoo authorities are not much concerned about the death of the 12 tigers. They are now gearing up to take more steps for another breeding programme. Therefore, it is high time that government intervened and regulated the breeding process scientifically.