Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu impressed by clean Thiruvananthapuram zoo
Andhra Chief Minister and his team also visited the veterinary hospital attached to the zoo.
Thiruvananthapuram: The Thiruvananthapuram zoo can feel justifiably proud of its cleanliness. For, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who visited the city zoo and Napier museum on Sunday, had a word of praise for its neatness and asked the zoo authorities whether it was kept that way round-the-clock.
He, along with his wife Nara Bhuvaneshwari and their grandson Nara Devaansh, spent over two hours at the zoo. They were on a private visit here after their visit to Lulu Mall in Kochi in Saturday.
The zoo authorities were caught unawares when Mr Naidu's personal staff informed them of their visit by 9.30 a.m. They were given a rousing reception and taken around the zoo in the battery-operated car.
Later, they visited Napier museum. Zoo and museum director K. Gangadharan told DC that Mr Naidu was impressed with the facilities and the cleanliness in the zoo.
"Chandrababu Naidu congratulated us for keeping the zoo meticulously clean," said Mr Gangadharan.
The city zoo has been trying to get a pair of Asiatic lions from Nehru Zoological Park, Hyderabad, within a few months. A lion and a lioness from the city zoo, Ayush and Gracy, with limbs deformed due to inbreeding, will be packed off to Thrissur zoo so that the local zoo can concentrate on the conservation of Asiatic lions.
The city zoo pales into insignificance compared to the zoos in Andhra Pradesh area-wise.
"While the NZP in Hyderabad is located in 380 acres, the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park in Visakhapatnam has 625 acres. The Thiruvananthapuram museum and zoo campus has only 55 acres," said a zoo official.
Mr Naidu and his team also visited the veterinary hospital attached to the zoo and enquired about the condition of the ailing animals.
Mr Naidu's wife Bhuvaneshwari is the daughter of the late N. T. Rama Rao, former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Nara Devaansh, aged two-and-a-half-years-old, is the son of Nara Lokesh, minister for IT, panchayati raj and rural development in the Naidu cabinet.