India’s largest leopard safari opens at Bannerghatta

  • June 27, 2024
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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India’s largest leopard safari opens at Bannerghatta

Sub: Environment

Sec: Protected Area

Context:

  • Inauguration of South India’s First and Country’s Largest Leopard Safari at Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) in Karnataka.

Details:

  • A safari area of 20 hectares is demarcated and fenced as per Central Zoo Authority guidelines.
  • Currently, eight leopards are released in the open forest area.
  • Bannerghatta has a significant population of free-ranging leopards (Panthera pardus).
  • Terrain: undulating with natural rocky outcrops and semi-deciduous forest.
    • Enclosed with a 4.5-metre high vertical chain-link mesh, MS sheets at a 30° inclined angle of 1.5 metres.
  • Leopard cubs rescued across the State will be raised and shifted to the safari to educate visitors about big cats and human-animal conflicts.
  • Four acres within the safari are separated by a solar fence for acclimatisation.

Additional Initiatives Inaugurated by Minister Khandre at BBP:

  • Renovated elephant weaning centre.
  • Babycare room at the butterfly park.
  • Children’s play area.
  • Entrance arch.
  • Flagging off of electric buggies and zoo installations.
  • Naming of a male elephant calf as Swaraj.
  • Release of six hamadryas baboons for public display.

Future Developments Proposed at BBP

  • New naturalistic enclosures for emus and rheas costing ₹50 lakh.
  • Hunting cheetah enclosure estimated at ₹1.5 crore.
  • Hamadrya and olive baboon enclosure at ₹1.5 crore.
  • Indian grey wolf enclosure at ₹1.5 crore.
  • Development of skywalks to connect the zoo and the butterfly park.

Details of species in the news:

SpeciesDescription
Emus
  • The emu is a species of flightless bird endemic to Australia, where it is the largest native bird.
  • It is the only extant member of the genus Dromaius and the second-tallest living bird after its African ratite relative, the common ostrich.
  • The emu’s native ranges cover most of the Australian mainland.
  • The Tasmanian, Kangaroo Island and King Island subspecies became extinct after the European settlement of Australia in 1788.
Rheas
  • Rheas, also known as ñandus or South American ostrich, are moderately sized South American ratites (flightless birds without a keel on their sternum bone) of the order Rheiformes.
  • They are distantly related to the African ostriches and Australia’s emu (the largest and second-largest living ratites, respectively), with rheas placing just behind the emu in height and overall size.
Hamadryas Baboon
  • The hamadryas baboon is a species of baboon within the Old World monkey family.
  • It is the northernmost of all the baboons, being native to the Horn of Africa and the southwestern region of the Arabian Peninsula.
  • These regions provide habitats with the advantage for this species of fewer natural predators than central or southern Africa where other baboons reside.
  • The hamadryas baboon was a sacred animal to the ancient Egyptians and appeared in various roles in ancient Egyptian religion, hence its alternative name of ‘sacred baboon’.
Olive Baboon
  • The olive baboon, also called the Anubis baboon, is a member of the family Cercopithecidae Old World monkeys.
  • The species is the most wide-ranging of all baboons, being native to 25 countries throughout Africa, extending from Mali eastward to Ethiopia and Tanzania.
  • Isolated populations are also present in some mountainous regions of the Sahara.
  • It inhabits savannahs, steppes, and forests.
  • The common name is derived from its coat colour, which is a shade of green-grey at a distance.
  • A variety of communications, vocal and non-vocal, facilitate a complex social structure.
Indian grey wolf
  • The Indian wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) is a subspecies of grey wolf that ranges from Southwest Asia to the Indian subcontinent.
  • It is intermediate in size between the Himalayan wolf and the Arabian wolf and lacks the former’s luxuriant winter coat due to it living in warmer conditions.
  • Within this subspecies, the “Indian plains wolf” is genetically basal to all other extant Canis lupus apart from the older lineage Himalayan wolf, with both proposed as separate species.
  • The Indian wolf is one of the most endangered populations of grey wolf in the world.

Source: TH

Environment India’s largest leopard safari opens at Bannerghatta