Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government will take up transformation of Nandankanan Zoological Park and Botanical Garden near Bhubaneswar into a world class facility under its 5T initiative.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday approved a proposal submitted by Forest department in this regard. He had directed the department to submit a detailed project report on development of the zoo during the performance review meeting on May 23.
As per the proposal, the project will be implemented in 2 phases in 2023-25 and 2025-28. In the first phase, the zoo and the botanical garden will be transformed and in the second phase, Chudang forest adjacent to the zoo would be developed. The forest will have the facility of night safari and a safari complex.
Besides telling the department to complete the project in time, the chief minister directed to strictly enforce ban on plastic use inside the zoo.
The project on zoo envisages additional facilities for the visitors, modern frontage, landscaping, water bird aviary and immersive enclosures.
It will also serve as a special hub for the children to learn about nature from an activity-based zoological park. Various programmes for the children including Nandankanan Club and Zoo Ambassador, Citizen Science and Know Your Trees will be taken up in schools.
It may be noted that Nandankanan Zoo presently has total 4,012 animals of 161 species. They include 48 species of mammals, 77 species of birds, 30 species of reptiles and 6 species of amphibian animals.
Among others, chief secretary PK Jena, development commissioner Anu Garg and additional chief secretary, Forest and Environment department Satyabrata Sahu were present at the meeting.
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