Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Sambalpur Zoo and Rescue Centre will have some new inmates after the Central Zoo Authority’s (CZA) approval to an animal exchange programme.
Under the animal exchange programme with Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP) in Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur Zoo will get blackbucks, nilgais and hog deer and send chausinghas and sambars, according to sources.
In the first phase of the programme, 4 male blackbucks and 4 female will be shifted from NZP to Sambalpur Zoo. In the second phase, 8 nilgais (4 male and 4 female) and 8 hog deer (4 male and 4 female) will be sent to the biggest zoo in western Odisha.
The Sambalpur Zoo, on its part, will provide 7 chausinghas (two male and five female) and five sambars (two male and three female) to NZP. The programme is expected to boost captive breeding of chausingha in NZP and infuse new bloodline to the sambar population, the sources said.
The state government renamed the zoo at Motijharan in Sambalpur city as Sambalpur Zoo & Rescue Centre in July. Popularly known as Deer Park, it was earlier named as Wild Animal Conservation Centre.
The zoo at the heart of Sambalpur city was established in 1980 on 13 hectare land. It now has around 300 animals, the sources said.