India to Replace Old Zoos with More 'Natural' Ones

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India, under fire from environmentalists for failing to protect its tiger population, will replace dozens of its old and crammed zoos with sprawling near-natural habitats, officials said.

CALCUTTA, India — India, under fire from environmentalists for failing to protect its tiger population, will replace dozens of its old and crammed zoos with sprawling near-natural habitats, officials said.


They said animals will be kept in conditions as close to nature as possible. In many of India's 164 zoos, wild animals live in small, dank and often stinking cages and enclosures.


"We have already identified 40 zoos that need to be replaced with near-natural enclosures in keeping with the new zoo policy," said Bipul Chakraborty, scientific officer of the Central Zoo Authority, which regulates zoos in India.


Animal rights have become a hot button issue in India after reports in March said all tigers at the Sariska tiger reserve in a western region had been killed by poachers. There were 16-18 tigers in Sariska a year ago.


Some animal rights groups have said tigers could be suffering a similar fate in other sanctuaries across India, forcing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to launch a police investigation. This week, police arrested the country's most wanted poacher.


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India's endangered tiger population has fallen from some 40,000 a century ago to about 3,700 mainly because of poaching. Some environment groups put the number at less than 2,000.


NOT FOR ENTERTAINMENT


Animal rights groups have demanded that zoos be abolished as entertainment centres, saying animals should be kept in captivity only for conservation.


"We are against the idea of zoos as centres of entertainment," said Debasish Chakraborty of the People for Animals (PFA), a leading animal rights group.


"Having a shed over their heads and concrete floors under their feet is not the wild animals' idea of living close to nature."


Five years ago, a nationwide debate over administration of zoos was sparked after a mysterious disease killed 11 tigers in a zoo in eastern India.


In 2001, India's Supreme Court banned circuses from using animals in their shows. Most zoos in India's big cities were started by British colonialists with little thought about animal rights.


"We have asked many zoos to decrease the number of their animal exhibits so that there is enough space for the remaining ones," said the zoo authority's Chakraborty.


Officials decided this week to shift India's oldest zoo in Calcutta, set up 130 years ago, to outside the city limits to provide more room and natural conditions for its animals.


Source: Reuters