VADODARA, July 5: On June 6 a baby blackbuck is rescued from rabaris and moved to Sayajibaug Zoo. Six days later it dies in the deer enclosure, allegedly for want of proper attention.n Late night on June 30, a chinkara is stolen from the zoo despite round-the-clock private security.
These two incidents throw into sharp focus the upkeep of nearly 1,500 birds and animals at the 129-year-old zoo, which does not have a permanent veterinary doctor and faces derecognition by Central Zoo Authority. Worse,Vadodara Municipal Corporation is yet to wake up.
Volunteers of the Gujarat Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA), led by general secretary Snehal Bhatt, rescued a two-month-old blackbuck from rabaris from the Waghodia Road. After a panchnama in forest officers' presence, the animal covered by Schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, was handed to the zoo.
Bhatt contests the decision to put the animal in the zoo, which had been reprimanded by CZA, while divisional forest officer (Vadodara range) G S Pandey says a difficult alternative was to take it to Junagadh's Shakkarbaug Zoo. She alleges the animal died of starvation and demands, in a letter to the Forest Department, action against the zoo. She has also sent this letter to CZA and former environment minister Menaka Gandhi.
Curator Vijayraj Jadeja was not available for comments, while Inspector Manubhai Kachela admits the animal had become anaemic. Asked if it was bottlefed and kept isolated, he said it was kept in the deer enclosure, in company of other blackbucks. ``We tried to bottlefeed it but the animal did not respond.''
What is striking is the contradictory claims of the zoo and Dr C.B. Patel, a part-time vet doctor appointed after the CZA rap. Kachela claims they had sought medical advice on the upkeep of the blackbuck. And Patel maintains he was informed on June 12 when the animal died.
Patel says a post-mortem revealed very little food and polythene pieces in the abdomen. It is believed the animal might have consumed this during the stay with the Rabaris. The post-mortem concludes the animal died of gas accumulation in stomach due to indigestion.
On action against the zoo, Pandey says it depends on a range forest officer's report in a week. However, forest department sources doubt stern action, for the department had sent the animal to the zoo and was expected to look after its upkeep.
Municipal Commissioner G R Aloria is aware of the death. ``I have received complaints about the lacklustre functioning of the zoo,'' he says, adding he would set things right.
About the chinkara's theft, Kachela says it was the next morning they found the animal stolen. It appeared someone had jumped the fence late on June 30 night and decamped with the chinkara. And the only action was to prepare a file to penalise the security contractor for the lapse.
Bhatt says a full-time vet is mandatory and Kachela concurs with her, while highly placed zoo sources, wishing anonymity, say it was a doctor's responsibility to check the food, including nutrition contents. But here, this is done by the inspectors.
The recently appointed part-time vet comes for an hour in the morning and evening. Earlier, visiting vet N G Vyas was summoned only when the inmates were sick. Sources say even deworming of the birds and animals was done by inspectors on several occasions, adding it was time the size of the cages was increased.
The zoo does not have elephants because CZA had barred it from procuring an elephant after the last died of overuse in joy-rides a few years back. The promise to CZA never to use them for joy-rides was scoffed at and the zoo was not allowed to buy a pair of elephants again.
