Agartala, June 13 (IANS): Bihar's Patna Zoo and Tripura's Sepahijala Zoo will soon exchange rare animals, officials said here on Sunday.
The 41-year-old Patna Zoo, also known as the Sanjay Gandhi Botanical and Zoological Garden, will take clouded leopards, pigtailed macaques and spectacled langoors from Tripura zoo, officials said. "In exchange, Patna Zoo would provide one female rhino or a pair of one-horned rhino to Sepahijala Zoo," said Sepahijala Zoo director Ajit Bhowmik.
"Both the zoos have already got approval from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) under the environment and forests ministry for the exchange programme. We would soon start the exchange process," he told IANS.
The 38-year-old Sepahijala Zoo, is currently home to more than 500 animals, many of them endangered, and over 100 species of birds and 10 species of reptiles. The Sepahijala Zoo is next to the Sepahijala wildlife sanctuary with more than 46 species of wild animals.
The Indian one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) is a large mammal mainly found in northeastern India and neighbouring Nepal. It is confined to the grasslands and jungles in the foothills of Himalayan forests.
Sepahijala Zoo with the help of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and CZA has successfully initiated breeding of four endangered animal species including spectacled monkey, clouded leopard, and the pigtailed macaque which are facing extinction due to destruction of their habitat as well as poaching.
