Sambalpur: The Odisha government has renamed the zoo at Motijharan in this city as “Sambalpur Zoo & Rescue Centre”.
The zoo, popularly known as Deer Park, was earlier named as Wild Animal Conservation Centre. The zoo at the heart of Sambalpur city was established in 1980 on 13 hectare land.
One botanical garden with more than 6,000 plants of different variety was started by Hirakud Wildlife Division last year which is acting as a greenbelt for the animals of the zoo and also adding to visitor flow, sources said.
Now the zoo has 27 enclosures and 333 animals. Five number of Schedule -1 species animals are also in the zoo like leopard, sloth bear, chousingha, python and peacock. The zoo has 123 deer, 41 Sambars and four sloth bears.
The zoo acts as a centre for awareness and education on wildlife for general public. Better visitor amenities like more toilets, drinking water, cafeteria, exclusive parking, children’s park, complete renovation of drainage and also of enclosures have been done in last one year.
The proposal to rename the soo was first submitted to PCCF (Wildlife) by the divisional forest officer (DFO), Hirakud Division in May 2022. Subsequently, on the recommendation of the PCCF, the decision was taken and the state government recently issued a notification declaring the renaming of the Zoo to “Sambalpur Zoo and Conservation Centre”, the sources said.
DFO, Hirakud Wildlife Division, Anshu Pragyan Das reportedly said that the purpose of renaming the zoo is to make the public aware about the Zoo and also strengthen the conservation measures.
With the change of name, more visitors will be attracted and have a better understanding about wildlife and the efforts being taken to conserve them.
