(IN): Sonarpur zoo project stuck on drawing board

August 12, 2009

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Sonarpur zoo project stuck on drawing board

Suman Chakraborti | TNN

Kolkata: The state forest department’s proposed zoological-cum-safari park

at Sonarpur’s Bhagabanpur in South 24-Parganas is still stuck at the

conceptual stage.

The park was planned almost five years back and even though the Centre

gave its go-ahead almost two years ago, the project is yet to take off due

to lack of initiative from the authorities concerned.

The implementation is taking more time because the land earmarked for the

project is part of the East Kolkata Wetlands, a Ramsar site. Forest

department and zoo authorities plan to overcome this hurdle by developing a

wetland ecosystem and a mangrove ecosystem without disturbing the natural

surroundings.

“The wetland area being a Ramsar site, we have conceptualized an open-air

safari park that would not disturb the area,” said a forest department

official. Around 500 acre is required to set up the park.

Officials of the East Kolkata Wetland Management Authority (EKWMA),

however, said they had not received any such zoo-project proposal from any

of the authorities concerned. “The project has not got formal clearance from

EKWMA. Nobody has submitted any proposal with the detailed project report,”

said EKWMA chief technical officer Nitai Kundu. Under EKWMA’s norms, a

formal approval of the agency is needed before implementing any project in

the wetland.

B R Sharma, member-secretary of the Central Zoo Authority of India, said

they have not received any information from the state government whether

land acquisition for the project has started. “We have been only informed

that the project is in the pipeline,” Sharma said.

State forest secretary K S Rajendrakumar said the proposal to hand over

the land to the forest department was submitted to the land and land reforms

department some time back. “The process to transfer the land is on. There

are some fisheries cooperatives located there, but these problems could be

sorted out. Work on the proposed zoo project will start as soon as the L &

LR department transfers the land to the forest department,” he said.

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