After five years of groundwork for moving the central zoo at Jawalakhel to Bhaktapur, the Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation has finally received the nod from the cabinet.
According to Krishna Prasad Acharya, spokesperson for MFoSC, the new zoo with zoological garden and recreational center will be completed within three years if work progresses as expected.
“We will have a new zoo built within the next three years if everything works out as planned,” said Acharya. “The zoo will be an ideal open conservation area for wild animals and birds," he added. The new zoo will sprawl across 245 hectares of land. The zoo will also cover seven community forests in Gundu, Sipadol and Katunje area.
Maheshwar Dhakal, ecologist at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), said the new zoo will be a sanctuary for hundreds of animals.
“We will make sure that the animals are kept in spacious cages and provided food regularly. Furthermore, our efforts will be aimed at sheltering more exotic animals,” said Dhakal.
Dhakal informed that the project is estimated to cost around Rs 1 billion.
The need for a new protected area for animals has become urgent as the only Central Zoo at Jawalakhel in Lalitpur had become congested.
The Jawalakhel-based zoo was built in 1932 by Juddha Shumsher Rana. It came under the government´s control in 1951 and was opened to the public in 1956. Currently, the zoo covers an area of six hectares of land and houses 35 species of mammals, 420 birds of 53 species, 33 reptiles of 11 species and 320 aquarium fishes of 17 species.
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