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Powai aviary & reptile park hinges on zoo revamp

The wait for an aviary boasting of exotic birds within this concrete jungle of a city just got longer.

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The wait for an aviary boasting of exotic birds within this concrete jungle of a city just got longer. The central zoo authority (CZA) has withheld the plan for an aviary and reptile park near the Powai lake. 

The CZA, in its direction to the 150-year-old Veermata Jijamata Udyan and zoo at Byculla, has specified that the work relating to the park should be stalled for the time being as the zoo revamp is still not complete. 

“The CRZ has pointed out the plans of shifting the birds should be dropped till the zoo revamp has been completed. Restoration of the Byculla zoo is the priority right now,” said Anil Anjankar, zoo director. 

The aviary and reptile park was proposed to be spread over 13 acres of green cover, he added.

In collusion with efforts to deck up the proposed bird park, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was planning to shut down the aviary at Byculla zoo and relocate it to a defunct civic garden near Powai lake. 

The zoo has more than 450 birds belonging to nearly 37 different species. These species include exotic birds such as the grey parrot, species from Australia, Africa and a few from the Amazon forest.

With the announcement of the plan for the park, zoo authorities were planning to shift the reptiles along with the birds near the Powai lake. The zoo has 33 reptiles belonging to seven different species. “The decision to shift the birds and reptiles was in order to maintain the balance between the botanical garden and the zoological nature of the zoo. The space created after the relocation was supposed to be kept green,” said a senior civic official. 

Mayor Shraddha Jadhav had announced the opening of a bird park in Powai on the lines of Jurong Bird Park in Singapore, in July 2010. But the work was going on at a slow pace due to the beautification of Powai lake. Although the beautification work near the lake was completed in January this year, work on the proposed park did not move an inch.

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