African countries offer animals as gifts to Surat zoo

SURAT: Diamond city in the days to come will have its own little African Safari and people from across the world would come here to see African elephants, cheetahs, zebras and giraffes. At the just concluded Indo-African Conclave in the city, senior officials of a number of participating countries from the continent offered to provide wild animals free to Surat city.
African countries have a surplus of wild animals and many don't even have an effective conservation policy to protect rare species. "We want to make our zoo best in western India. We want to breed rare species of wild animals from African countries and also conserve them. We have showed interest in acquiring these animals during our discussion with delegates of Zambia, Botswana and Tanzania. We said we are ready to pay for the animals, but African delegates replied that they want to give us the animals free," said Dr Prafful Mehta, zoo incharge, Surat Municipal Corporation(SMC)
"We will bear the transport cost to bring these animals to the city," Mehta said.
Paresh Patel, president, South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries (SGCCI), said, "This is a wonderful development. Zambia's first secretary Kalumaya L. Silumesili was the one who took interest in the issue. We are thankful to him."
Mehta said, "We will complete the procedures in a month's time to bring different species of animals to our Sarthana zoo."
Surat zoo is looking to bring cheetahs, antelopes, zebras, giraffes, ostrich, hyena, wild dogs, rhinos and wild buffaloes.
The city's nature park is spread over on 81 acres and has lions, tigers, leopards among other animals.