Jammu, Apr 14: Principal Secretary, Forest, Ecology and Environment, Dheeraj Gupta on Friday asked the department’s officials, engineers, contractors and service providers to put in their best effort to make the Jambu Zoo operationally ready by the last week of April for a trial run.
Dheeraj inspected development works being executed in the zoo. Suresh Kumar Gupta, Chief Wildlife Warden, briefed about various ongoing works in the zoo. He apprised the Principal Secretary of the status of critical zoo infrastructures such as animal enclosures, power supply, amphitheatre, animal kitchen, animal hospital, staff quarters, main entrance gate, orientation centre, ticketing counters, Souvenir shop, kiosk, cafeteria, viewpoints, Jammu Di Dhakki, toilets and other public amenities.
Gupta, while noticing significant progress achieved, directed the department to expedite balance work on the parking area, roads, sulabh shauchalaya, Nature Interpretation Centre, shelter sheds, herbivore pathway and related works by deploying additional manpower and machinery. He instructed the officers to carry out site cleaning, plantation, greening, enrichment and beautification activities simultaneously, in and around the whole zoo infrastructure.
The Principal Secretary asked the officers to detail the “in-house” animal shifting plan of Manda Mini Zoo animals to the New Jambu Zoo based on the evaluation carried out by Central Zoo Authority (CZA) experts. He asked for expediting clearances’ from CZA and the Ministry of Defense respectively for water supply right of way passing through the defence area.
Regional Wildlife Warden Jammu, Wildlife Warden, Jambu Zoo and other senior officers of the Department of Wildlife Protection and representatives of executing agencies were present on the occasion.
