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Animal activists to intensify protest

Since the time the proposal to procure Humboldt penguins was moved, several animal rights groups as well as individual activists have been using social media and conducting on-ground activities to express their protest.

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Activists stage a protest outside Byculla zoo on Tuesday
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With Mumbai's Veermata Jijabai Bhosale (VJB) Zoo, aka Byculla zoo, becoming the first zoo in the country to have penguins, animal activists seemed not only unimpressed but also mighty miffed.

Since the time the proposal to procure Humboldt penguins was moved, several animal rights groups as well as individual activists have been using social media and conducting on-ground activities to express their protest.

"We recently held a protest outside the zoo but just because the penguins have arrived, we will not stop our campaign. In fact, our campaign is only growing stronger and we are also now taking up the way the existing animals in the zoo are living," said Anand Siva, an activist who had organised the protest on Saturday.

Siva claimed that he himself had visited the zoo and seen that the building where the enclosure is supposed to come up is far from being ready. "How can the zoo authorities procure the penguins without even having the required infrastructure ready? Now they are claiming it will be ready in three months, it shows their lackadaisical approach," he said.

Activists complaining about the existing condition of the zoo also said that they would keep a strict watch on the animals housed there. They would also keep highlighting issues and take up matters with not only BMC but also the Central Zoo Authourity (CZA), they said.

Meanwhile, Kedar Gore, a wildlife activist and director of The Corbett Foundation (TCF), said: "BMC is obsessed with keeping exotic species in the zoo. One wonders how bringing these Humboldt penguins will really help in conservation education and captive breeding, which are the two main principles of any zoological park."

Laxmikant Deshpande, a naturalist, commented that Mumbai zoo should focus more on optimising the zoo's infrastructure development and management for conservation education with focus on appropriate species. "Zoos world over are ranked based on selection of species, care of animals, designing and maintenance of habitats in sync with needs of the animals, interpretation facilities, awareness activities and feedback of visitors," he said, adding that Mumbai zoo should disclose findings of research on its status and scope of improvement to Mumbaikars to make its management better and participatory.

Reacting to the protests by animal activists over the penguin issue, director of the zoo Dr Sanjay Tripathi said, "We have all the permissions and the zoo is trying to create a world-class infrastructure for keeping these penguins. The enclosure for public viewing will be ready in three months and so will be the quarantine period, and then we can directly shift them."

A lot of people were complaining about the existing enclosures, but one should understand that the entire revamping work would take three years to complete, he added.

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