Central Zoo Authority approves BMC's stage-3 expansion plan

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received approval for the third stage expansion of Veermata Jijabai Bhosale (VJB) Udyan and Zoo at Byculla from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), New Delhi. The approval has come in a record time of just three months.

After getting 7 acres of land from the Mafatlal industries last year, the civic body prepared draft of animal enclosures in Buculla zoo, and sent to the CZA in December 2018. "The BMC administration kept following up with CZA, and the technical committee approved the proposal on February 12 to develop enclosure for exotic animals," said AL Jarhad, additional municipal commissioner (City) of BMC.

Meanwhile, the BMC has already floated tender worth Rs 198 crore for designing and building animals enclosures and replicating the African savannah. As per the tender, Mumbaikars will be able see black jaguars, white lions, okapi, oryx, cheetah, wallaby, hippo, giraffe, zebra, mandrill monkey, chimpanzee, ring tailed lemurs, cassovari, emu, ostrich, lesser flamingos etc.

In the third stage, the enclosure will be developed over 12 acres of land. There is a provision of Rs 110.78 crore in the budget for development works of the zoo. Under first stage, 10 animals enclosures for wolf, sloth bear, otter, Madras pond turtle, hyena, cat complex, bird aviary-1, jackal and leopard are included. Of these, the enclosure of four- jackal, Madras pond turtle, hyena and leopard will be complete by March 2019.

A senior BMC official said that the exotic section is being built from scratch, and will include internal roads, gardens and other facilities.

The Plan

BMC has floated tender worth Rs 198 crore for designing and building animals enclosures and replicating the African savannah at Byculla zoo.