Opposition Congress Legislator Suresh Routray on Monday threatened an agitation against shifting of big cats from the Nandan Kanan zoo near Bhubaneswar to other states. ``We don`t want the tigers, lions or any other animal to be moved out of the zoo``, Routray told reporters.
As per the decision taken at a consultative committee meeting of MPs relating to the Union Environment and Forest Ministry, 12 tigers, including five whites, and 15 African lions are to be shifted to zoos at Visakhapatnam and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. The Union Minister for Environment and Forest, T R Baalu, who visited the zoo recently, had also said that the tigers and lions were being shifted to reduce congestion in the park which had the highest number of white tigers in the world.
Few of the big cats have already been moved out of the Nandan Kanan zoo which came under focus recently following a series of tiger deaths caused by Trypanosomiasis infection. Routray said that he had informed the Orissa chief minister on Sunday about the decision of the local people to oppose the shifting of the zoo animals.
The residents of the nearby villages would stage a demonstration before the zoo on Tuesday to protest the move and gherao the park on Wednesday, he said. Bureau Report