Vizag's Indira Gandhi Zoo Park organizes naming ceremony of Indian Bisons

VISAKHAPATNAM: In an innovative programme, Vizag’s Indira Gandhi Zoo Park (IGZP) organised the naming ceremony of three Indian bisons or Gaur (Bos Gaurus) calves on Wednesday morning. Instead of the zoo management, it was the public who was asked to suggest three-letter (in Telugu) names for the two male and one female calves. Three names were picked up from drop boxes in a lucky draw and the calves were thus named Hanshika, Giri and Vijay.
Visitors could suggest the names from Tuesday onwards and put the name-written chits in three separate drop boxes.Cine actor Sailesh Bolisetti was asked to pick up three names from the three boxes among hundreds of entries and awarded the three names and prizes were given to those whose names were selected. Born to parents Pinky and Veer, brought from Bondla Zoo in Goa, the three calves are aged six, eight and nine months, with Hanshika being the youngest. “I feel privileged to be part of today’s programme at a time when most wildlife are under threat of extinction. It’s a great and interesting job by the zoo management,” remarked actor Sailesh. The name Hanshika was given by one Prashant, who wasn’t present today while the slip with the suggested name Vijay didn’t have the person’s name who wrote it. Giri was suggested by C Malkonda of Balamma Foundation, an organisation for orphan children.
One of the visitors, wildlife conservationist Santosh Edupuganti, working for Fishing Cats conservancy said, “Such type of naming ceremony of animals by the public is a rare event in Indian zoos. Such programmes enable the public to participate in the animal-related programmes directly and build a bond between the wildlife and visitors. Programmes like birthday party of tiger cubs, which was held in the zoo in March and today’s naming ceremony will draw more visitors to the zoo, make it more popular and at the same time, people will feel more involved with the animals, when they personally name them.”
Speaking about the Indian Gaur, IGZP curator B Vijaya Kumar averred, “The gaur is the largest bovine native to south east Asia, with a life span of 30-40 years. It’s listed as vulnerable as per IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red list and rare, endangered in the Eastern Ghats due to its habitat destruction. Other threats to its existence include poaching, trade, for meat and trophies. The estimated population in India is around 12,000-15,000 but it’s fast depleting in the Eastern Ghats as compared to the Western Ghats. It’s the state animal of Goa. At IGZP, we have nine gaurs (five male and four female) including the three calves. To save the rare and endangered species from extinction, captive breeding of the Indian Gaur besides wild dog, barking deer, chowsingha, hog deer, salt water crocodile, water monitor lizard takes place at our zoo, which are subsequently released in the wild.”
Besides the curator, assistant curator Ali Mashady and zoo doctor V Srinivas were also present along with hundreds of visitors.