IDA Celebrates World Wildlife Week

On Saturday, 2nd October, IDA organised an activity packed function for all our supporters who attended.

We started by showing a great wildlife movie called "Two Brothers", followed by a veggy lunch and a demo of vegan cooking by an expert we invited.

Ater this, we all pushed off to the Zoo. At the entrance we joined Zoo Education Officer Mr. Panranjpe in taking the pledge to see to the welfare of all biodiversity, witnessed a skit by a group of enthusiastic young men on how to treat confined zoo animals with respect and finally went to the Snake House.

This was our main destination as we are looking at ways to enrich the lives of the captive animals at Byculla Zoo and make their living conditions more bearable. They are after all simply prisoners, behind bars for the entertainment of the human public.

We had prepared an info sheet about Indian snakes and also taken along a young expert on snakes to give a small talk at this venue. In addition, we had prepared suggestions for enrichment of the snake enclosures. We handed this over to Mr. Paranjpe and Mr.Anjankar, Zoo Director. Some time ago, we had done the same thing for Shiva the lone rhino. We'll keep on visiting as this type of inspection might bring about some much-needed improvement in the way all the animals are housed and cared for.

Just one more wonderful footnote: As we all trooped over to say hello to Shiva, we noticed a crow frantically trying to stay afloat in his water pool. Of course, we all called for help, as even IDA members can't enter the rhino's enclosure - he is too dangerous and fast moving, even in his old age. Anyway, we all persisted in our efforts to get the crow rescued. First Shiva had to be lured out of his pool, poor chap! This was done by a helper, hiding inside his "room" and ringing the dinner bell. This was enough for Shiva to lumber out as he knew a treat or his meal awaited. Not until he was safely in his room with the door shut, could the rescuer go into the enclosure and see to the crow. He was scooped up soaking wet and safely deposited in the middle of some foliage to dry off. I'm pleased to say, that this helpless bird's life was saved because IDA was at the Zoo that day.