West Bengal to soon launch the state’s first lion safari

If all goes as planned, West Bengal will soon be home to the state’s first lion safari. Referring to this, the state’s Forest Minister Jyotipriya Mallick informed that the forest department is planning to do the same.

The Minister added that North Bengal already has a tiger safari, and now they are planning to launch a lion safari here, which would be the state’s first lion safari.
The North Bengal Wild Animals Park at Siliguri in north Bengal was launched in 2016 and the park now boasts of a tiger safari with around 11 tigers and a herbivore safari. The tiger safari spreads over 20 hectares.

Revealing more about this, a senior official in the know how added that the master plan for the lion safari has already been drawn up. He added that they will be approaching the Central Zoo Authority for the permission by the end of this month.
He further added that they will approach the central zoo authority and once they get the permission, they will be bringing in the lions from other zoos on animal exchange programs.

As of now, the tiger safari has around 11 tigers. The official further added that they are also trying to come up with a tiger breeding and conservation centre inside the park, and a proposal in this regard will also be sent to the CZA soon.
The forest department is also working on plans to reintroduce tigers in the Buxa Tiger Reserve of at Alipurduar district in north Bengal and one-horn rhino at Patlakhawa in the neighbouring Cooch Behar district.