NEW DELHI: In two days, the National Zoological Park will have a pair of pythons for the snake house. They are on their way from the Nandan Van Zoo in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, which is getting 20 blackbuck — 10 males and 10 females — from Delhi in return. It may seem like an unfair exchange but the Delhi zoo authorities are only too happy to let some of the blackbuck go. They have over a hundred now.
The veterinary officer, Dr Paneer Selvam, says the blackbuck population has grown to the level of being unmanageable. Included in Schedule-I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, the species, which is endangered in the wild due to poaching and loss of habitat, has been proliferating in the zoos. "There is a practical problem with the blackbuck. Almost all zoos have them and exchange programmes are difficult," he says.
The Delhi zoo itself has about 120 blackbucks and there is a minimum of 20 births in a year. As vasectomy or castration is not an option, the zoo authorities are hoping to control the population by segregating the males from the females. "We have segregated about 20 males and keep them in a separate area," Paneer Selvam. He hopes that with a number of males cooling their ardour in a separate enclosure for the last three months, the number of births per year will come down.
Selvam would rather have more of the swamp deer and chowsingha. They had two births of the first and one of the chowsingha last year. The populations of barking deer and sangai deer are under control.
