According to reports, Mumbai’s Byculla Zoo is all geared up to welcome more animals in the next few years as the civic-run zoo is reportedly planning an expansion.
Moreover, the Byculla Zoo is set to expand by 10 acres to house several exotic animal species. Those animals will be brought to the zoo in the next few years. Byculla Zoo, officially known as Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan, is spread over 53 acres. The additional 10 acres have been procured for the third phase of expansion.
Speaking about the same, Zoo director Dr Sanjay Tripathi stated that a tender has been floated for the expansion work further adding that the expansion work will witness the construction of 15 enclosures, including those for giraffe, white lion, black jaguar, chimpanzee, ostrich, ringtail lemur and cheetah.
At the moment, the zoo houses more than 330 animals, birds and reptiles which includes elephants, penguins, crocodiles and monkeys among others.
The Byculla Zoo happens to be a popular attraction for tourists and for the citizens of Mumbai. One of the fanciest attractions for visitors is two Royal Bengal Tigers named Shakti and Karishma. The tigers were brought over from Siddharth Garden and Zoo in Maharashtra’s Aurangabad city in February 2020. They were on view along with the crowd favourite Humboldt Penguins.
It is one of the oldest zoos in India. Over the past couple of years, Mumbai’s civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been a massive phased-wise modernisation programme.