Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s only zoo Nandankanan has been badly battered by Cyclone Fani and will remain shut for at least a week, official sources said on Tuesday.
The zoo houses over 3000 animals belonging to 156 species. Nandankanan Zoological Park and the adjoining State Botanical Garden (which together form a sanctuary) are closed from May 5 to 13, informed the zoo website.
The zoo authorities, sources informed, will have a meeting on May 13 to decide on reopening of Nandankanan, famous for white tigers and its sprawling campus near Lake Kanjia. It’s a popular tourist destination and attracted over three million visitors in 2017-18.
The devastration cyclone, which wreaked havoc in Odisha’s coastal districts on Friday, has severely damaged the habitat of the zoo inmates by uprooting and breaking trees, tearing apart enclosures and twisting electrical and other installations. Facilities meant for tourists, including recreational areas for children, have been damaged, zoo sources said.
Though the casualty to zoo inmates remains to be ascertained, sources said some animals and birds are expected to have died in the catastrophe that caused heavy rain and strong gusty winds.
“Some of the inmates are in a state of shock and will take time to recover. Their habitats have been badly hit. It will take quite some time to restore their habitats and bring about normalcy,” a zoo insider said.
According to zoo sources, this is the worst calamity to have hit the zoo since the 1999 supercyclone. The following year the zoo lost a dozen tigers to Trypanosomiasis, a diseased spread by flies.
