By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Mar. 4: People can now take guardianship of an animal of the Central Zoo and provide for its food, care and nurture for a year under its animal adoption programme.
The novel scheme titled ‘Adopt an Animal’ was launched by Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Wednesday on the occasion of World Wildlife Day.
The Prime Minister initiated the programme by adopting a one-horned rhinoceros himself. “I will pay for the rhino’s expenses for a month in my personal capacity. Then, for the rest of the year, the Government of Nepal will provide for its nourishment. After that, we will have made the zoo capable enough to care for its resident animals with its own resources,” he said.
Prime Minister Oli clarified that the money for the rhino’s care would come from his wife Radhika Shakya’s pension. “I have pledged all my salary to the fund established to control COVID-19 in the country and will not receive it until the virus outbreak in the country comes to end. Hence, we will be using my wife’s pension,” he said.
Oli also said that the government would provide four electric carts to the zoo to facilitate senior citizens, pregnant women, small children and people with disabilities to tour around the facility.
While praising its role in conservation, Prime Minister Oli also emphasised that zoos were no longer just about collecting animals for sight-seeing and asked the Central Zoo to expand its role into education, especially of schoolchildren, about the importance of nature and wild animals for human life. “Animals are the original Nepalis. They are the naturally indigenous inhabitants of the country. So, we must conserve them.”
He also expressed dissatisfaction and the small six-hectare area of the zoo and the tiny enclosures the animals were kept in and shared that the government was moving forward with the work on the 245-hectare Suryabinayak Zoological Park under the open-zoo concept. “The wild animals must get to feel like wild animals; they should be able to roam around and be comfortable,” he emphasised.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing restrictions forced the zoo to close its doors for 10 months, robbing it of its sole source of income – ticket revenue. This made it really hard for it to feed and support the more than 1,100 wild animals of nearly 110 species it houses. Even though the zoo has now opened, the financial crisis has still not subsided.
According to the Central Zoo, the ‘Adopt an Animal’ programme has been launched with the objective of raising funds for the protection and welfare of wildlife and to foster public participation. Three One-Horned Rhinoceroses, one Asian Elephant, four Royal Bengal Tigers, one hippopotamus, two chimpanzees, two siamangs, four sloth bears, four Himalayan Black Bears, one gharial crocodile, two Red Pandas, three Himalayan Monals and three Sarus Cranes are up for adoption.
The Prime Minister also launched e-ticketing system in the zoo.