Newborns and rescued animals named and released into Bulbuley zoo

ANUPA RAI

GANGTOK, 17 May: Newborn and rescued animals rehabilitated at the Himalayan Zoological Park here above Gangtok were baptized on State Day. The special event started with prayers by a Hindu priest and a Buddhist monk and was also attended by the Forest Minister, Bhim Dhungel and Forest department officers.
The first animal to named was a female goral born in the zoo on 14 March to Muskan and Jai. She will be called “Kananbala”, a name which means, as the Minister informed, “daughter of forest”. The calf was released by the Minister into its 1000 sq. mt. enclosure. The zoo now has four gorals, one of which was rescued from feral dogs.
Next, female clouded leopard, “rescued” by the zoo keepers on 02 September last year, was named “Kamsun”, a name which translates as ‘master of three elements’.  

The last animal to be named was an eight-months-old hand-reared female leopard cat, which was brought to the zoo in September last year after it was recued from Sichey. “Pandi” (“Princess” in Lepcha) was brought in a very critical condition to the zoo. It was reared on 2-hourly feeds of milk and lactogen and is now healthy, informed Dr. Karma Dolma Bhutia, who recorded the support support received from the zoo-keepers in aving Pandi.
She is now well recovered and plays happily in a 1500 sq. mt. enclosure.
The animal was barely 18-days-old when it was brought here along with another cub, which unfortunately could not survive given its similarly critical health condition.
The Minister also visited the birds section to witness another lovely sight of the pair of Silver and Golden pheasants with their three chicks. Along with this pair, was a pair of Lady Amherst, all recently introduced.
The Minister informed that a rescue centre, quarantine section and zoo office will be constructed under the JICA project at Bulbuley even as training continues for zoo authorities and the concerned personnel.
The Himalayan Zoological Park attracts 150-200 tourists everyday, informed the zoo keepers, many of whom have been engaged on Muster-Roll basis for the past 18-20 years. Their work makes tremendous demands of time and energy, even risk, and they are hopeful that ongoing process of regularizing the services of MR workers will take up their condition with the seriousness it deserves.