Visakhapatnam, Tripura zoos to exchange rare animals

Visakhapatnam's Indira Gandhi Zoological Park (IGZP) and Tripura's Sepahijala Zoo will soon exchange rare animals, officials said here Thursday.

"Visakhapatnam's IGZP would provide seven endangered animals to Sepahijala Zoo. These include two white royal Bengal tigers, two slow loris bears and three four-horned deer," said Krishna Gopal Roy, director of the Sepahijala Zoo, which was set up in 1972 in west Tripura.

The zoo is now home to 655 animals belonging to 53 different species.

Speaking to reporters, Roy said both zoos have got the necessary approvals for the animal exchange programme from the union ministry of environment and forests.

"We will soon start the exchange process," Roy said.

The Central Zoo Authority of India has categorised the Sepahijala Zoo, 25 km south of the state capital, as one of India's 22 large zoos.

This is the only zoo in India located within a wildlife sanctuary, the Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary. A portion of the sanctuary was also declared Clouded Leopard National Park.