Convert Byculla Zoo into wildlife rescue centre: Activist tells Aaditya

Animal welfare activist asks environment minister Aaditya Thackeray to consider the proposal by starting an online petition

Mumbai-based animal welfare activist Ambika Hiranandani has started an online petition on change.org appealing to Environment and Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray to convert the Veer Jijamata Udyan, famously known as Byculla Zoo, into a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre.

Hiranandani who is also a lawyer said that so far more than 15,500 people have pledged support to the petition.

"According to media reports, the Zoo is soon going to have giraffes, zebras, cheetahs, lemurs, ostriches, kangaroos, lions, tigers and jackal. I understand that their enclosures will have everything an enclosure can possibly have and that you will take all welfare measures but a cage is still a cage and does not compare to being free in the wild," the petition states "Zoos do not educate children. In a zoo, a child sees a lifeless, sad and depressed animal, which is no longer living but only existing. Airing a documentary on the forests of the world can teach children far more about the natural world than one lifeless animal confined against their wishes.

Even now, Mr Thackeray, you can convert the zoo into a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre. My suggestion instead of a zoo is to have a centre to breed endangered animals which can then be released and repopulate the wild, a small hospital for urban wildlife, an education centre for adults and children to learn about the natural world. All of this can be devised and executed under your leadership. The entire animal welfare and wildlife community will help you in executing this vision. This centre can attract tourists from all corners of the world and be a hub to study the conservation of wildlife in India," states the petition "To execute a vision that focuses on the welfare of the natural world requires an understanding beyond what we are taught in school. I think you have that understanding and so I am making this appeal to you to stop the zoo expansion and convert it into the world's only urban centre for wildlife. A project that will ensure that generations will remember you as someone who said caging animals for human beings' entertainment is not just but we can learn about them in better and
more meaningful ways.

I hope that you read this letter and that it strikes a chord," concludes Hiranandani in the petition.

16k
Approx. no of people who have pledged their support

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