Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The scorching heat, with the temperature hitting 44.5 degrees Celsius, which has made life difficult for citizens and forced them to remain indoors for the most part of the day has not affected the footfall at the city zoo. “The number of visitors at Kamla Nehru Prani Sangrahalaya, also known as Indore Zoo remains largely unaffected,” said zoo officials.
The reason for this seems to be the green cover in the zoo and the arrangements made for the visitors. “We have installed fountains and sprinklers at several spots in the zoo. RO water cooler is also available. The green cover in the zoo has become denser and it provides much relief,” zoo incharge Dr Uttam Yadav said.
Ayesha Chouhan, a visitor at the city zoo said that she and her husband with their 8-year-daughter came to the zoo to enjoy their Saturday. The scorching heat is a bit bearable here thanks to the dense greenery and at the aviary and snake house it gets more soothing thanks to the green mesh and the air conditioner fitted there.
"Though, this hot weather could affect a person’s health the dense greenery in the premises provides much-needed protection from the Sun when one moves around in the zoo. Also, the several drinking water outlets and sprinklers and showers provide relief," said Anirudh Verma who visited the Zoo with his group of friends.
Zoo education officer Nihar Parulekar said that the extra-ordinary hot season has not made much difference to the footfall as compared to last year. “On an average day 4,000 to 5000 people visited the zoo and on weekends the number increased to 8,000 to 12,000 a day. But, the people are preferring visiting in evening hours,” zoo officials said. Similar numbers were recorded in the months of February and March too, they added.
New water cooler for visitors
Dr Yadav said that the Zoo administration has installed a new water cooler near the cafeteria zone. This water cooler has a capacity to serve 1,000 litres of water every hour.
Arrangement for animals
Zoo-in-charge Uttam Yadav said, “Water bodies and coolers have been installed for lion, tiger and leopard; besides, piped water is being sprayed. The same is true for monkeys and other animals. Bird cages are covered with cloth to protect them from the heat and sun, and sprinklers with water and mud have been arranged for sambar.’ 'Steps have been taken for every animal according to its nature,’ he added.
