INDORE (PTI) Rani, a tiny Asiatic lion cub, deserted by her mother, was doomed to Starve to death until she found a foster parent in the form of a veterinary doctor at the Indore zoo in Madhya Pradesh (in central India) a year ago.
Arun Kumar Mahodaya, veterinary officer at the Indore zoo, noticed that the Asiatic lioness ‘Rehana’, who had given birth to three cubs, was not letting the young suckle, probably due to blockage of mammary glands. After two cubs died the zoo officials separated the third one and fed her goat’s milk.
A year later, Rani, who was kept with two Pomeranians in an open enclosure, has grown into a six-feet long healthy beast responding positively to the company and thriving on the special diet and affection.
Rani is just one success story of the zoo, which has been transformed into an ‘animal rehabilitation center’ by the doctor who arrived on deputation as veterinarian and acting superintendent some years ago.
Responding to the doctor’s call, Sagar, a ten-feet-long tiger, bares his fangs showing missing canniness’. It would have turned man eater if not sent to the z00 after being rescued four years ago from a well in Teetarpani Nawradehi forest of Sagar district into which it fell while chasing a boar. The teeth broke when it chewed a bucket let down’ by a villager.
Another resident of the zoo Maya Devi an eight feet long tigress, turned man eater to feed her cub and self and devoured 18 persons and injured 12 others before being captured last year in Mainpur section of Nandanvan forest in Raipur district, after a 170-day Operation which cost rs 2.7 lakhs. However, it was not always smooth sailing for the Zoo authorities. Tragedy struck the zoo one night several months back when a tanker, carrying fuel, overturned on the national highway beside the zoo. The driver released the fuel which spread to a 100-square feet area in the zoo and the resultant fire claimed a pair of rare “black wolves’ as its first victims. Birds and trees were also charred in the: blaze. The tanker driver too died in the fire,
In another incident, the zoo’s lone pair of wild boars mated successfully, However, the male ate up the four piglets said Mishri nath Sapera (snake charmer) who has been looking after the denizens for the past 18 years.
A Himalayan bear’s left paw was amputated after if was bitten, by another bear when he pot his arm into the other’s cage, The leg: of one of the three ‘hog deer’, brought from Bhopal, hadi to be ampulated as magpots had infested a wound, The zoo has bred Himalayan bears successfully, with one of these cubs being exchanged with: the Jijamata Udyan, Bombay for a leopard cub four months back, A porcupine pair had given birth in captivity for the second tin (ailing seven little ones, Mahodaya said.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 17, 1992
