After penguins, Giraffes, zebras, white lions and jaguars will now find a home in the Mumbai Zoo as the civic body of India's financial capital makes efforts to take it to international standards.
Veer Mata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan & Zoo (VJBUZ), popularly known as Byculla Zoo or Rani Baug, is one of the oldest zoos of India – and the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is currently undertaking a massive phased-wise modernisation programme.
These animals will be kept at the new 10-acres extension facility, adjacent to the existing zoo, and request for proposals for the project have been invited.
Five years ago, a colony of eight Humboldt penguins settled in the specially-created icy environs within the 160-year-old Veermata Jijabai Bhonsale Udyan and Zoo.
Accorded the category of a 'Medium Zoo' till September 2022, by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), BMC Municipal Commissioner I.S. Chahal announced a major phase-wise expansion plan of the VJBUZ to welcome the new exotic animals in the near future.
The BMC Budget 2021-2022 has a provision of INR 49.67 crores for the zoo development project has been made. Last year, it was INR 48.38 crores.
The BMC has already constructed 10 enclosures where animals like tigers, leopards, sloth bears, hyenas, jackals, sambar, spotted deer, swamp deer, and Madras Pond Turtle are on display. Besides, an additional enclosure for Otters, the Indian wolf, barking deer, Nilgai, four-horned antelopes, and a project to augment the existing aviary shall be completed by next month.
The VJBUZ is located at Byculla in a 50-acres Grade 2(B) Heritage lush-green oasis in south Mumbai, barely five km from the BSE, which symbolises the city's pre-eminent status as the country's commercial capital.
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