A major challenge faced by animals bred in captivity is their struggle to adjust in the wild where they need to feed and protect themselves. The Darjeeling Zoo seems to have sorted out the problem for some of the Himalayan endangered species by planning to set up an off display breeding centre. The primary objective of such an initiative is to release the zoo bred animals to the wild with the near wild environment of the proposed centre facilitating both breeding and honing of hunting skills of these animals.
According to officials of The Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park (PNHZP) Darjeeling five hectares of forest land has already been allotted for this purpose by the forest department, which is located 20 Km from Darjeeling town in West Bengal on way to Peshok called Tobgay Danra.
The Director of PNHZP AK Jha said, “We will be sending a proposal to the Central Zoo Authority for the off display breeding centre at Topgey Danra which is located in the Sinchal Wildlife Sanctuary. The survey is already complete. The state government will be providing the necessary funds for building the infrastructure.”
Started in 1958, the The Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park specialises in captive breeding i.e. breeding of animals within their enclosures in the premises of the Zoo. Some of the Himalayan endangered species bred in the zoo include the crimson horned pheasant (satyr tragopan), Tibetan Wolf, Red Pandas, Himalayan Tahr, Blue sheep and snow Leopard.
The captive breeding for snow Leopards were started at PNHZP with just four snow leopards in 1986. A total of 52 births have taken place since then and most of these animals are sent to high altitude zoos. Presently there are 3 females and 4 males in the zoo as stated by the director.
This PNHZP is also the zoo designate for co-ordinating Project Red Panda (Panda breeding programme). This programme envisages captive breeding of Red Pandas at PNHZP, Itanagar zoo and Gangtok zoo in Sikkim. 1994 marked the first success of project Red Panda. Then on nearly 40 zoo bred pandas were present in PNHZP, and quite a few of them were sent to high altitude zoo. Presently there are 5 females, 9 males, and a male and female cub of red pandas in the zoo.
Jha also stated, “Our aim is to release the zoo bred animals in the wild. We had got immense success on 14th November 2003 when two zoo bred radio collared red pandas were released in the wild in the forests of Garibans. However this has not been tried out for the snow leopards.”
The off display breeding centre will have enough space with each animal enclosure measuring half hectare. A pair of snow leopards and a pair of red pandas will be initially kept at the centre. Since visitors will not be allowed here, the animals will get ample time to adjust in the wild settings and be as close to their natural habitat as possible all the while learning important life skills.
Once the snow leopards and pandas are found to be well equipped to survive on their own in the wild, they will be released.
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Article source: HT
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