NEW DELHI: Rahul Yadav couldn't have imagined sitting there, learning about warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals. After all, he had earned a degree in metallurgy and material from Malaviya National Institute of Technology in Jaipur in 2020. But here he was at the National Zoological Park in Delhi, wide-eyed, uncertain yet enthusiastic, as inquisitive as the others who had joined the facility in the capital as zookeepers.
Yadav wasn't the only incongruous presence at the orientation session. Sitting alongside were engineers and postgraduates and graduates in English, mathematics, physics, microeconomics, administration, chemistry, geography and environmental management. None of them had envisioned a career surrounded by animals.
They were here because after 30 years, Delhi Zoo decided on a mass recruitment of zookeepers, who are the first line of workers with direct contact with the animals and who interpret their behaviour and look after their wellbeing. Till 2003, the current recruits would be overqualified for the post, the requirement then being a secondary school certificate. Even today, the educational eligibility of a zookeeper is just a Class XII pass.
Yadav, however, wasn't underwhelmed by it all. "It's a different work profile, quite contrary to what I had imagined," the youth from Agra told TOI. "When I passed the Staff Selection Commission Multi Tasking Staff Exam (SSC-MTS), I thought I would be posted to some ministry. But I will give the zoo time. It's only the third day of training."
Vishal Kumar, a science graduate from Patna with honours in physics, too hadn't planned on a zoo job. He was bent on cracking the civil services exams but sat for the less challenging SSC-MTS to make a beginning in life. "I had never seen wild animals or had experience with wildlife," chuckled Kumar. "So far the training has been interesting."
Seeing an antelope was the beginning of new possibilities for Soma Mondal, whose education till now centred on English literature. The West Bengal girl was at the antelope enclosure taking baby steps to comprehend the subtleties of a career where she will analyse and interpret the behaviour of each animal and report anomalies. Like her, geography MA degree holder Rini Ghosh couldn't help laughing. "In the beginning I was afraid the swamp deer would attack me. Then I saw it was as alarmed at seeing a new person as I was and as scared," Ghosh said.
The zoo administration is hopeful that the well-educated, tech-savvy young men and women will live up to expectations that they will embrace the cause of wildlife conservation. "In developed countries like the United States and Singapore, zookeepers are highly qualified. They write theses, are species experts, even carry out research for their doctoral studies. It was time we too started taking these posts with similar seriousness," said Dr Manoj Kumar, who is involved with the training of the recruits.
Zoo director Akanksha Mahajan and her staff are trying to inculcate a sense of dedication in the young zookeepers. "I take the variety of educational qualifications of the recruits as a positive sign. They will soon go to Jamnagar, where the profession of zookeeping is more detailed and glamorous. There is no hurry in their taking charge -they just need to focus on training and understanding that they hold the key to a brighter future for wildlife conservation," said Mahajan.
The director said that 104 posts left unfilled after 2006 were resurrected - to the gratitude of the facility's overworked zookeepers. Vinod Kumar, seniormost among the zookeepers, had this to tell the recruits: "I will retire in two years but have no regrets. There is peace and no pollution here. The animals recognise your voice, and you contribute to conservation schemes like breeding programmes."
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