Look whos watching the zoo animals now……..Virat A Singh
Group of college students take it upon themselves to ward off intrusive visitors
Group of college students take it upon themselves to ward off intrusive visitors
This is one cool summer for the animals at Byculla zoo. A group of college students have taken it upon themselves to guard the enclosures so the animals are not harassed by the hordes of visitors through the vacations.
The young zoo rangers will be at work on weekends, when crowds at the citys only zoo reach their peak – an average of 35,000 visitors a day. With this, incidents of teasing animals, pelting stones and feeding rise considerably.
We have security arrangements, but given the sheer number of visitors keeping an eye on all enclosures becomes extremely difficult, said zoo director Anil Anjankar, adding that the young blood is more than welcome.
And the move is set to benefit visitors, too, as the rangers will give them information on the animals. A L Paranjape, the zoos public relations and education officer, said, We have provided the volunteers with information on the zoo and interesting facts about the animals.
The programme is the brainchild of the organisation EcoFolks, which works towards building harmonious relations between humans and nature. Founder Paresh Pimpale said, We wanted to do something for the animals at the zoo, at the same time sensitise visitors.
Ranger Sana Jinah of Elphinstone College said, Six months ago I visited the zoo and was appalled at the way people mistreated the animals.
The poor creatures were terrified. When I heard of this opportunity I latched on to it. Its better to help these animals than spend the vacation in front of the idiot box.
Ranger Tarkik Sheth, an 18-year-old D G Ruparel student, has even started a community on Facebook to find more volunteers. I have stopped many people when they were teasing monkeys or the bears and they realised their mistake right away, he said proudly.
* The zoo rangers prepare to take their positions at enclosures assigned to them, where they will keep an eye on the animals and provide interesting facts to visitors
* Visitors have been known to disturb the animals at Rani Baug by teasing them or trying to feed them. The rangers will educate people on zoo etiquette