Vizag Zoo to get another Elephant

The Indira Gandhi Zoological Park will soon welcome Laxmi, an elephant brought down from the Siddhartha Garden and Zoo, Aurangabad. The Aurangabad zoo authorities received a letter from Vizag zoo Authorities stating that a team of caretakers will arrive to shift Laxmi.

Indira Gandhi Zoological Park, Visakhapatnam is one of the largest zoos in India surrounded by a reserve forest.  Spread across 625 acres amid the Kambalakonda Reserve Forest, it is the perfect habitat for an elephant.

On August 1, 1996 Laxmi’s parents were transferred to Aurangabad Zoo from Mysore and gave birth to Laxmi on November 9, 1997. The male elephant died a year later and since then these female elephants have been living in the Aurangabad Zoo.

In 2009, the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) remarked that elephants should not be kept in captivity but should be transferred to dedicated camps in forests. The CZA directed 64 zoo authorities to move elephants to larger areas.

Laxmi will be shifted to Vizag in the next 15 days.