CZA saves city zoo from turning into vana mela

HYDERABAD: Education, not entertainment. Plans to turn the Nehru Zoological Park into an eco-tourism hub have been nipped in the bud by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) precisely for this reason — zoos, according to CZA, cannot be places where people munch popcorn sitting in amphitheatres and food plazas.
The facilities proposed to convert the NZP into an eco-tourist hot-spot had little to do with nature or with the upkeep of animals or education of visitors about wildlife and nature.Rather, the proposal was to turn the country''s premier zoo into a hub of food courts and entertainment.
These plan were made by the AP Forest Development Corporation and AP Tourism Development Corporation but were shot down by the CZA. The corporations'' project envisaged setting up nearly 10 food courts.
It would also have required handing over eight of the zoo''s best lawns to a developer to create seating facilities for people to have their food. In addition, the promoters were to have introduced a new toy train and construct an amphitheatre for holding cultural programmes.
Interestingly, the planners of the scheme appeared to have not read or "ignored" the document ''Eco-tourism in India: Policy and Guidelines'' which lays down norms for developing eco-tourism spots in the country.
The document clearly states that zoos are not included as a resource for ecotourism.
The CZA is learnt to have rejected the corporations'' plans on the grounds that zoos should be managed as per the National Zoo Policy and the zoo rules. As per these, a zoo''s utility lies in educating visitors about the ecological link between man and nature.