Jayalalithaa requests Gogoi for rhino pair

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa requested her Assam counterpart Tarun Gogoi to spare a pair of the greater one-horned rhinoceros in exchange for a pair of Indian gaur.

In a letter to Gogoi, the text of which was released to the media here Wednesday, Jayalalithaa said the Arignar Anna Zoological Park near here has a collection of 1,400 individual animals consisting of 143 species but no rhinoceros.

"The greater one-horned rhinoceros was in our collection from 1985 to 1989. The animal died in 1989 and after that there has been no representative of this magnificent animal in our zoo," she said.

According to her, it will be fitting for the zoo to have the Indian rhinoceros considering the number of visitors and the popularity of the animal.

"We have sufficient numbers of Indian gaur, which we can give in exchange to the government of Assam. The Indian gaur is one of our flagship species," she said.