The Maharashtra Forest Department will transport 13 captive elephants from a camp in Gadchiroli to the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom, which will be established by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) in Gujarat’s Jamnagar district.
The Jamnagar centre, booked as “one of the world’s largest zoos,” will cover 250 acres. “At the Kamlapur elephant camp in Gadchiroli, we have 16 elephants.” Following local requests, it was decided to keep three elephants in the camp and send the rest to the centre (Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom),” said Sunil Limaye, Principal Conservator of Forests (Wildlife).
The Maharashtra forest department recently received permission from the Project Elephant division of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to shift the elephants to Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom. Project Elephant, set up in 1992, provides technical and financial support to states for wildlife management of the free-ranging Asian Elephants.
The elephants will be shifted to the Jamnagar centre in two groups. The first group is likely to be shifted this month.
The forest department has also sought information from other rescue centres and zoos in the state to see if any more animals can be sent to Reliance’s rescue centre in Jamnagar.
All the elephants to be shifted from Maharashtra are untrained and have attracted many tourists. Reliance’s Radhe Krishna Elephant Welfare Trust at Jamnagar will shift the animals.
On February 12, 2019, the Central Zoo Authority approved the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom at its 33rd meeting. Twelve leopards captured in the wild in the Gujarat region were relocated to the zoo in 2020. The forest department apprehended these leopards after they attacked humans.
The Jamnagar centre will have conservation and breeding areas, water bodies, an interpretation centre, a rescue and rehabilitation centre, and different areas with enclosures for exotic animals, wild animals from Gujarat, desert animals, rodents, dragons and lizards, and animals from other parts of India, according to the layout plan shared by CZA.
Giraffe, zebra, ostrich, kangaroo, white rhino, African lion, African elephant, cheetah, jaguar, pygmy hippo, chimps, gorillas, orangutang, lemur, komodo dragons, green and yellow anacondas are among the exotic animals expected.