GUWAHATI: The purported transfer of 25 exotic animals from Assam State Zoo cum Botanical Garden to the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom, which is coming up on Reliance premises at Jamnagar in Gujarat kicked up a storm in the state.
Following this, the Assam Youth wing of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) has moved to the Gauhati High Court, seeking its intervention to stop the illegal transfer of wild animals from the state to Gujarat.
Apart from AAP, the Assam Trinamool Congress and Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) also staged a protest in front of the state zoo on Saturday, demanding the state government of bringing back the animals from Gujarat.
Spread over 280 acres, the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom in Jamnagar will be one of the world’s biggest zoos housing over 100 species of animals and birds from India and the rest of the world. It is a ‘pet project’ of Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani.
According to sources, as many as 25 exotic animals have been transferred from Assam State Zoo cum Botanical Garden to the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom in Jamnagar.
“Steps are afoot to transfer two rhinos from the state to Gujarat within a day or two,” they claimed.
A delegation of AAP Assam on Saturday called on Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court RM Chhaya at his residence and urged him to take a suo moto case to stop such illegal transfer of wild animals from the state zoo.
“We would beg you to kindly intervene in the matter and request the authority to stay the illegal and unauthorised transfer of protected animals from Assam State Zoo to a private zoo of a business tycoon in Gujarat as such an illegal act is being undertaken by the Assam government without due process or necessary clearance from wildlife authorities,” Rudrankar Hazarika, AAP Youth Wing convenor, said in the letter to the Chief Justice.
“Assam government was required to obtain necessary permission or clearance from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) under section 38C of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1992. Further, under section 39 of the Wildlife Protection Act, it is being stated that though the wild animals are characterised as government property, the role of the state is of a custodian only in the context of such protected animals and any act of transfer must be justified from the conservation point of view,” the letter said.
“In this regard, the State Board of wild Life is the competent authority to decide on such issues. But no material is available in the public domain, which states that due consideration was given by the Board on the subject matter and a team of experts had authorised such transfers,” it said.
“It is pertinent to mention that most of the animals being allegedly transferred are of rainforest and grassland origins and are not accustomed or known to exist/survive in the harsh arid desert-type climate in Gujarat. No assurance has been made as to how the survival of such endangered animals is ensured in a habitat, they are not suitable for,” it also said.
“We citizens under the aegis of Aam Admi Party would request you to kindly intervene in the matter and subject to a formal petition in the court at the earliest date possible, stay the act of transferring of such animals from Assam to Gujarat in violation of the rules and procedures set under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972,” it further said.
“Further direct the authorities to revert any protected animals that have been illegally transferred from Assam to Gujarat without public knowledge,” it added.
Established in 1957, the Assam State Zoo and Botanical Garden is the region’s leading zoo and ex-situ (off-site) conservation centre located at Hengrabari Reserve Forest.
On being asked, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) MK Yadava refrained from making any comment on the matter and said, “I don’t have any mandate to talk to the media.”
State Zoo’s divisional forest officer (DFO) Ashwin Kumar said a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Assam State Zoo and the Reliance Zoo in September 2022.
“The memorandum was about the technical and scientific exchange between both zoos. The experts from Reliance Zoo will train the doctors of Assam State Zoo, and the experts there (Reliance Zoo) if want to learn about various animals, which are found here, can come and observe and learn about the animals,” Kumar said.
“Any zoo in the country, private or government can transfer animals with the permission of the Central Zoo Authority (CZW). The state zoo has written to the CZW to transfer some exotic animals to a different location for the first time,” Kumar said without mentioning the location.
“The exotic animals require a certain quality of enclosure, which is not there at the state zoo in Guwahati,” he added.
There are some facilities, which are only available in Guwahati and hence exotic animals seized and rescued from various places in the state are sent to the state zoo with court orders.
However, activists of the Chiriakhana Suraksha Mancha are not convinced by the official explanation.
“According to the Central Zoo Authority rules, the exchange can take place only between government zoos and not between a government and a private zoo. We want the animals to be brought back. We cannot allow our resources to be handed to any private party,” said Rajkumar Baishya, general secretary of the Mancha.
The Mancha was formed in 2017 to ensure the well-being of the Assam State Zoo and Botanical Garden.
“Was the law amended to facilitate a government zoo to exchange animals with a private zoo? In 2020, two panthers were also taken to the Reliance zoo. It was said that Reliance would help to get zebra from Israel. But till today no zebra has come from Israel,” Baishya said.
In 2020, the pair of black panthers were relocated to the Reliance zoo under an exchange programme in January with the necessary approval of the CZA in November.
In exchange, the Assam State Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden was supposed to receive two pairs of zebras from Israel with the help of the Reliance-run zoo sometime after April.
The Guwahati zoo is the only breeding centre for black panthers in the country. So, the demand for animals is quite high here. A black panther was earlier relocated to Mysore and Ranchi in exchange for an ostrich and a giraffe, respectively.
“Since last years, many animals have been found missing from the zoo. There was no account of these missing animals. There were deaths of animals in the cages. But there was no probe into these incidents,” Baishya further said.
“According to the rules, the animals, which are not born in the zoo can’t be transferred. Male-female pair can’t be transferred. Animals brought from other places can’t be transferred. Moreover, animals can’t be transferred in the darkness of night,” Baishya added.
In Assam, large-scale animal smuggling cases have been reported. As per data, during the last two years, 152 cases have been registered in Assam and a total of 212 arrests have been made. The cases registered included a wide variety of animals, which were caught while being transported to different parts of India via Assam.
The animals, some alive and others in form of body parts, mostly included exotic creatures like hog deer, porcupines, pangolins, wild birds, and more.
In September 2022, one of the largest consignments of exotic animals was caught by the Rangia Police from being smuggled out.
The authority rescued two kangaroos, two chimpanzees, two parrots, nineteen monkeys, and eighteen turtles. The rescued animals were estimated to be worth crores in the international market. It was also found out that the animals were lifted from the Myanmar- Mizoram border and were suspected that they were being transported to North India.
After the exotic animals are rescued, they are brought to the Assam State Zoo, as in entire state it has the infrastructure where exotic animals can be kept. But the zoo lacks proper enclosures for the animals and there are only general practitioners.
After the health checkups of the animals (blood test, faecal test if required, and many other tests) they are kept in the zoo but not for public display.
The DFO also claimed that the state zoo will soon get a female giraffe from Patna Zoo, two zebras from Mysore, and a Royal Bengal Tiger from Pune zoo. In the last month, a black panther gave birth to a female panther in the zoo, a hippopotamus also gave birth, and a greater adjutant and a vulture also gave birth in the zoo.
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