The harvest festival Pongal brings cheer and happiness to everybody – Chennai is a city of people who had moved in from their villages decades ago or even centuries ago – the city wears a great cosmopolitan outlook housing people from North and North-eastern India, and many foreigners as well. On Pongal and more specifically for Kanum Pongal, thousands of city residents would throng important places – topping it would be Marina beach, Vandalur zoo and Trade fair at exhibition grounds.
The exhibition which
generally is open for around 70 days, apparently is not on – perhaps after the
passing away of the Hon’ble CM as it occurred after the death of MGR. crowds would continue to throng Marina- city Policy would step up security
arrangements. Barricades would be erected preventing people from entering water
and special podiums equipped with public
address system to take care of small children who wander away from their
parents and relatives. Temporary
watchtowers with public address systems will also be set up. There
will be change in traffic arrangements as well.
Then there is the Zoo –
Vandalur Zoo, in the suburb after Tambaram attracts thousands – and during
Pongal (3 days) the nos. are over a lakh.
It has come a longway since its yesteryears at Moore Market
Complex. The Zoological park spread over an area of 602 hectares (1,490 acres),
including a 92.45-hectare (228.4-acre) rescue and rehabilitation centre, houses
2,553 species of flora and fauna; many of the animals are in open enclosures,
visible on the moat. Open safaris for
deer and lions, the Otteri lake, an elephant bath area and white tigers are
among the attractions at the zoo.
The Zoo remains closed and
will not be open to visitors during Pongal, due to Cyclone Vardah. According to zoo officials, more than 15,000
trees were uprooted in the cyclone. Pipelines supplying water to the moat area,
created around enclosures with wild species, have been damaged. Electric poles
and two low-tension (LT) transformers were also damaged, resulting in
disruption of power supply to zoo.
One media reports puts the
loss caused by cyclone at over Rs 10 crore to
the zoo. However, there was no loss of life. No animal escaped from the
zoo, officials said. “Although the animals were safe, they were startled by the
intense cyclone,” added a ranger. Facilities for the public, including safari
centres in the park were damaged.
With cut in electricity,
providing water to animals itself was quite a task. The caring staff carried
food on their head, walking a few kilometres to reach the enclosure as passage was
blocked by fallen trees at many palces. During
last floods, there were rumours of wild animals having escaped. This time too, initial reports said that an
adult Lion-tailed Macaque had escaped after the cyclone damaged the enclosures
of several animals. However, zoo officials clarified that it was the langurs
that had gone missing after a big tree fell on the iron mesh and damaged it
completely. Zoo officials, however, expected
the langurs to return to their enclosure at the time of feeding. Forest Officials had to work overtime to
ensure that the animals and birds are
not stressed. There were special patrol
teams for checking the fallen walls and whether any animals could have escaped
from their enclosures. This was a major
challenge for the zoo managers as the animals could easily swim and escape or can even drown the pool of water. The continued wet conditions posed health
hazard to the animals also.
It is stated that there is
progress in repairing ~ as of now, the zoo remains closed to public.
Edward Green Balfour (1813 –
1889) a Scottish surgeon, orientalist and pioneering environmentalist, founded museums at Madras and Bangalore, a
zoological garden in Madras.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
14th Jan 2017.
