THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: During the 80's, State Tourism department used to resort to fireworks coinciding with the concluding day celebrations of Onam festival at Kanakakunnu Palace grounds. Though a much awaited event for couple of years, Museum and Zoo authorities were up in arms against it saying it caused birds and animals to go on ‘shock’ for weeks with majority of them banging their head in their enclosures.
Former tourism director and retired bureaucrat T. Balakrishnan recalls a young boy who was an onlooker at the fireworks losing his palm in the melee. He says that these were the two reasons which prompted the department to stall the fireworks display.
“A young boy lost his palm in a firework mishap during those periods. At the same time the then Museum and Zoo director Mr. P. R. Chandran wrote to the government requesting that the fireworks display be stopped due to the difficulty it caused to the birds and animals in the Zoo,” said Balakrishnan, managing director, INKEL Ltd, a public private partnership initiative.
