With the summer vacations looming over, crowds are being attracted to the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo, also known as the Byculla Zoo.
However, the zoo authorities are on their toes because of undisciplined visitors. After an incident outside the monkey's cage, zoo authorities will now be deploying extra guards permanently and a wire mesh will be installed over the cage.
In the last few years, the zoo has brought many new animals. The zoo received between 5000 to 6000 visitors daily on weekdays, and more than 15000 on weekends. On May 3, the zoo recorded 16000 visitors.
A group of children was spotted making a nuisance outside a monkey cage on Tuesday. They were throwing food inside the cage and were also seen hitting the monkey. This was recorded by an alert citizen and was brought to the notice of the zoo authorities.
This video went viral creating a rage of anger among animal lovers. Visitors are warned not to give outside food to animals in the cage. But still, it is seen that people throw food and trouble animals.
Taking a serious note of this incident the zoo authorities called a meeting and took a review of this incident.
“Such undisciplined behaviour is not expected, but we need to protect our animals. So wires up to two meters will be installed over the cage, which will make visitors unable to put food inside or touch monkeys. Two guards will be deployed in the morning from 9.30 am,” said Dr Sanjay Tripathy, director of the zoo.
