Hyderabad : Today, 65th Vanya Prani Saptah and 56th Zoo Day were celebrated at Nehru Zoological Park here. On the occasion, Chief Secretary Dr S.K. Joshi, IAS, was the chief guest.
Special Chief Secretary Rajeshwar Tiwari, IAS, visited Nehru Zoological Park. R. Shoba, IFS, PCCF (HoFF) & CWW, Munindra, PCCF (Admin) and A.V. Joseph, IFS, Rtd PCCF, released a pair of Lion-tailed Macaque into the enclosure for the public display. These were brought from Vandaluru Zoo, Chennai as a part of animal exchange program. Later, the Chief Secretary along with the Special Chief Secretary and Zoo officials inaugurated the renovated Butterfly Park housing over 35 species of butterflies.
Dr Sidanand Kukrety, I.F.S., Addl. Prl. Chief Conservator of Forests/ C.F & Director Zoo Parks, Hyderabad and Smt. N. Kshitija, I.F.S., Curator, Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad welcomed the dignitaries on the dais, felicitated to the Major donors to the zoo. Sri. O.P.Mishra, Chief General Manager, SBI and SriCharan, MD, Varsity Educational Institutes, Hyd. and also felicitated to A.V.Joseph, IFS, Rtd.for his major contribution in developing the zoo. Royal Admin, Roaring Lions, Green Warriors and Zoo Corps were (4) teams in the Zoo participated in the various sports events like Cricket, Kabaddi, Tennikoit, Chess, Carroms, Badminton, Tug of War, Musical Chairs, Lemon & Spoon etc., The Chief Secretary, The Spl. Chief Secretary and PCCF distributed the prizes to the winners.
Much emphasis was being laid on providing better visitor amenities in the near future. A very huge aviary is being built to house several indigenous and exotic bird and I understand that it will be the first of its kind in the country. The Chief Secretary congratulated the officers for their innovative thinking and implementation of works.
This year, the zoo added a pair of Giraffe, a pair of King Cobra, and several other species as part of animal exchange programme and several others are in pipeline. The Zoo provides free visits to the students of the Government Schools and concessional program to other private schools for creating awareness amongst the future generations. He also announced that the Zoo was getting two pairs of Kangaroos and a pair of Meerkats from Yokohoma Zoological Garden, Japan shortly through an exchange program.
Raghuveer, I.F.S., PCCF (VC &; MD), TSFDC, .Swargam Srinivas, IFS, PCCF, Wildlife, T.S. A.V. Joseph, I.F.S., Prl. C.C.F (HoFF) (Retd). Anil Epuri, Chairman, WWF, Veramachineni Sricharan, MD, Varsity Educational Institutes O.P. Mishra, Chief General Manager, SBI , . Shankaran, Dy. C.F. (Retd), OSD , . Buchi Rami Reddy, I.F.S., (Retd) , K. Shekar Reddy, ACF (Retd) , Dr. M. Navin Kumar, Dy. Director (Vet) (Retd) and Dr. M.A. Hakeem, Dy. Director (Vet), Nehru Zoological Park, were present. (NSS)
