A lifeless zoo

Sushmita Roy and her son recently went to Rangpur city from Thakurgaon to visit her relatives.

The eight-year-old kept on requesting his mother to take him to the city zoo, since he, like most of the children, wanted to see birds, reptiles and animals, rather than reading on books.

So, the mother and son went to the Rangpur Zoo. Sushmita was happy as a zoo is supposed to be entertaining and educating, and her son -- ecstatic.

Upon entering, he ran towards the cages hoping to see elephant, rhinoceros, giraffe and other rare animals living in their enclosures.

Soon his little heart sank since the state-run zoo for the eight northern districts did not have those animals as they are reeling from animal shortage.

“My son wanted to see giraffe, elephant and cheetah, but they do not have those,” said Susmita Roy. “Animals are the life of a zoo but this zoo has become a lifeless one,” she said.

Meanwhile, the eight-year-old was too upset to talk.

The zoo is also facing manpower crisis and failing to attract visitors, as the environment inside is very dirty for lack of maintenance. Most of the animals are also languishing.

Founded on 21.51 acres of land in 1989, the zoo opened for visitors in 1991 with 23 species of animals. At present it has 26 species including tiger, lion, bear, monkeys, crocodiles, deer, snakes, hippopotamus and birds, said the zoo officials. They brought a lioness from Chittagong Zoo in August.

“The zoo is missing animals like elephant, zebra and giraffe,” said Hazrat Ali, a contractor of Rangpur Zoo. “The number of visitors dropped to half and would continue dropping if it cannot bring new animals,” he said.

He said he had incurred a loss of Tk 18 lakh last year due to the shortage of visitors and most of the animals were lacking partners.

“I mostly avoid the zoo. But when my relatives visit from other districts, upon their request I bring them here,” said Ekram Hossain, a resident of Mahiganj area.

Not only there was shortage of animals; there were nuisance of mosquito and mismanagement, but they were still charged Tk 10, complained many visitors. During a recent visit it was seen that most of the cages had become dilapidated for lack of maintenance. Water of different enclosures including crocodiles and hippopotamus have turned murky and the walls -- algae-stained. Visitors often complained that they could not see the animals due to insufficient lights.

“We do not have sufficient animals,” said Mosarraf Hossain, deputy curator of Rangpur Zoo. “We have recently urged the concerned ministry to buy animals like giraffe, zebra and elephant; new animals will also attract more visitors,” he said.

He said at present they only have one animal caretaker and the post of a zoo official has been vacant for the last seven years. “We also need enough manpower to maintain the zoo properly.”