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Rainy Day at Alipore Zoo, Kolkata
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The test is over. Googled the answers. My score is falling short of projected cut-off, not by much, but enough to bury the chances of me getting lucky.
Done my analysis. Identified my shortcomings. Drawn up plans for next attempt & aiming to meet UPSC-2019 better prepared. Another year of grinding... But before that something i've been looking forward to, India's oldest zoo. The Alipore Zoological Garden is being renovated & new enclosures built. Some of the enclosures are more then 100 years old. I hadn't been there in years & i just had to see the place one last time before the older structures are demolished. The highest recoded attendance till date was on January 1, 2018 with 110,000 visitors. Thus i had to make sure i avoid the mob, or the animals don't come out of their shelters (standard practice here is for about 1/4 of the enclosure to be private space). So, i went on a weekday with the monsoon pouring down cats & dogs. The enclosures sure looked beautiful & lush but it meant some prized new arrivals like the Mouse deers were barely visible.  *This image is copyright of its original author Chowsingha, the Indian four horned antelope.  *This image is copyright of its original author Barking Deer.  *This image is copyright of its original author Swamp Deer.  *This image is copyright of its original author Nilgai or blue-bull female. The male was somewhere behind the bushes.  *This image is copyright of its original author Cheetal or spotted deer, much larger up close than they look in photos. This facility is also used as a breeding centre for them. If i remember correctly, these animals have cousins that have been released in Sundarbans.  *This image is copyright of its original author In the reptile house; Russell's Viper.  *This image is copyright of its original author Burmese Python. (The sign says "No photography" so i decided to stop)  *This image is copyright of its original author My favourite & Bengals state animal, Fishing cats.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author Jungle cat.  *This image is copyright of its original author The new leopard enclosure. He's on that tree. Eyes could see him but camera couldn't.  *This image is copyright of its original author Old Aviary. Hexagonal structure with 6 triangular cages. Peacock & Saras crane in the back.  *This image is copyright of its original author The one in last image.  *This image is copyright of its original author Peafowl's housing.  *This image is copyright of its original author New aviary.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author At this point the rain got harder. I stood under the shed infront of the leopard enclosure. He came out & started pacing in the downpour.  *This image is copyright of its original author Rhino (female). She has a calf who was behind the privacy wall. Her horn had been shaven for safety.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author Tigress Rani didn't come out of her cavern.  *This image is copyright of its original author New enclosure for tigers, presently houses a mating pair of a regular coloured female & this male (that's him in post #1,600 in Tiger Extinction thread back in his old cage).  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author Most of the old cages are gone. Only 3-4 remain, with two animals still living there. This female...  *This image is copyright of its original author ...& this ex-maneater from Sundarban (In third video of post #1,600). Unlike previous times i was taking a note of their physique this once. He is exactly the similar to the mainland tigress in both size & stature, bigger head though. Shouldn't weigh very different.  *This image is copyright of its original author It wasn't a day to be sitting in the water. It was damp & raining with quite a nip in the air. Helps him relive memories, i guess...  *This image is copyright of its original author
The asiatic lion pair came from Hyderabad Zoo earlier this year (the female's silhoutte inside is visible in last picture). Also no weight or measurements of them were ever taken... But visibly he was quite stout, more than i was expecting. And large. At least as large as that white tiger above, maybe more.
Also a lion's roar sounded much louder & resonating in real life than it does on screen.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author Finally, this is the largest specimen there. He is quite old now. With the small head & massive arms he reminds me of Raja. Even his face looks like him... The body colour was very reddish as well, like the Nilgiri duo.  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author  *This image is copyright of its original author
 
On any given day, zoo isn't the best place to see animals as by doing this we increase the greed of people to capture more animals and prison them in zoo. So never the less Alleppy zoo is better in maintenance to many other zoo in India, but its sad to see these provisional animals.
(12-22-2018, 09:19 PM)olivergreen Wrote: On any given day, zoo isn't the best place to see animals as by doing this we increase the greed of people to capture more animals and prison them in zoo. So never the less Alleppy zoo is better in maintenance to many other zoo in India, but its sad to see these provisional animals. I agree a lot, that captivity of wild animals is not good. Then again there is another side for this coin. For some animals zoos can provide last chance in fight against extinction in different ways. For instance Amur tiger, only 500-600 are now in wild and are far from situation, that people caring and trying to keep them alive as species could have peaceful mind. When talking about for instance biggest zoo in Finland also every year countless of injured wild animals are sent there to get best possible treatment from animal experts with top skills to do that. And after treatment then released back to wild. Here is link and some interesting text if rolling site downwards and reading what is said in part: Conservation work https://www.korkeasaari.fi/helsinki-zoo/ When I read that now, I was a little bit proud, I didn´t know that this zoo is biggest annual donor for Amur leopard and tiger protection. Then again shame for other so much bigger institutes, that small country as Finland has institution able to say that!!!! In this other place we have then again for instance bears, which were little orphanages when captured and if not rescued, they would have died. Now they have a life in captivity with people keeping very good care of them and they then again give many people opportunity to see these animals and understand how magnificent they are and how important it is to protect wildlife and also make sure, that they have environments making it possible to survive and thrive. http://www.kuusamon-suurpetokeskus.fi/ That site is mostly in finnish, but some information also in english. Many videos in youtube if searching with words "Juuso" "karhu" Anyway I think, that zoos have some justification to be there, as long as those are managed by responsible people and giving their own contribution for protection of wildlife by educating and training animal experts, participating to conservation programs and also educating visitors/ordinary people to understand better wild animals and how important they are for all of us in keeping ecosystem healthy. All zoos of course should be supervised carefully by government officials to meet high standards based on animal well-being. I think, that in many countries it is like that, but for sure there are many sad places too :/ (12-22-2018, 09:19 PM)olivergreen Wrote: On any given day, zoo isn't the best place to see animals as by doing this we increase the greed of people to capture more animals and prison them in zoo. So never the less Alleppy zoo is better in maintenance to many other zoo in India, but its sad to see these provisional animals. Yeah, about that... It's illegal to capture animals on the sole purpose of putting them into zoos. A zoo animal must be born & brought up in captivity. Only those problem animals (mostly tigers & leopards, maybe some elephants or sloth bears too) that has been deemed unfit/risky to released back into the wild are put to permanent captivity. Life sentence is better than death sentence, i guess. |
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