Mumbai, May 18: Mumbai’s nearly decade-long wait to once again witness the “King of the Jungle” is finally nearing an end. The Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo has received in-principle approval from Gujarat’s Sakkarbaug Zoological Park to bring four Asiatic lions to the city.
The Byculla zoo will transfer either giraffes, rhinoceros or capuchin monkeys to the Junagadh-based zoo in exchange for the majestic big cats.
Sakkarbaug Zoo offers four lions under exchange programme
The Director of Sakkarbaug Zoological Park, in a letter dated May 6, has offered two male and two female Asiatic lions to Mumbai under an exchange programme that seeks either two giraffes, a pair of Indian one-horned rhinoceroses, or three pairs of capuchin monkeys — pending approvals from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA).
The letter emphasised that the exchange will strictly comply with the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, CZA guidelines, and all requisite veterinary and statutory conditions.
Mayor sought lions as goodwill gesture
After repeated unsuccessful attempts by the BMC, Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde in February wrote to Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, seeking two pairs of Asiatic lions for the city zoo as a goodwill gesture.
The zoo has remained without a lion since the death of its last resident, a 16-year-old African-Asiatic hybrid named Jimmy, in 2014 after a prolonged illness.
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Jimmy was a major attraction at Byculla Zoo
Born at Byculla Zoo in 1998 to African lion Amar and Asiatic lioness Anita, Jimmy was a major crowd-puller.
In recent years, the civic body explored acquiring lions from Junagadh and Indore zoos through exchange proposals — offering zebras in return — and also approached the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Gujarat, but these efforts failed to materialise.
It was only after this that Mayor Tawde intervened, taking the initiative to bring Asiatic lions to the city zoo.
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