The petitioners through their counsel Usha Desai said in a public interest litigation before a division bench that the animals were not being looked after according to their needs and not given sufficient space for free movement.

The zoo, they contended, was polluted on account of negligence by the authority, who along with the government, were creating a situation in which the animals would die.

The Union Government, the zoological authorities and State Forest Department were not strictly enforcing rules for the preservation of the animals and not compelling visitors to behave in a disciplined way, they said.

The visitors tease and harass animals, throw stones and poke sticks at them which amounts to cruelty, they contended. Zoological garden counsel Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya challenged Gandhi's locus standi, she herself being a central minister. He added the charges were frivolous.

The zoo authorities have taken proper health care measures and the central zoo authorities had granted it the status of `A' category after being satisfied, he said.

Counsel for the West Bengal Forest Department Mita Mukherjee and Union of India counsel Sunil Bhattacharyya supported the zoological garden counsel.

Justices Tarun Chatterjee and S K Tewari refused to pass any interim order and directed the respondents to file their affidavits within four weeks. The matter will come up for hearing six weeks later.