Harking back: Third oldest zoo in the world that its people ignore

Many moons ago as a teenage newspaper reporter, my editor in desperation, given complaints of embarrassing stories, posted me on the Lahore Zoo beat. But then I produced a few exclusives on the animals and got posted to politics. The animals were far better.

A few years later I took my two daughters to the same zoo and to their shock when I ordered the hippopotamus named Raja to come to the edge of his open pit and show my daughters his teeth, he immediately obeyed. My little girls till this day are impressed. The keeper then was puzzled. But the Lahore Zoo has a history most people in this ancient city are unaware of, and hence do not contribute to keep it among the finest in the sub-continent. To my way of thinking this betrays a sadistic streak and is unacceptable. It is better to donate to the zoo than cultivate beggars with fake legs and fraudulent stories.

How many of our readers realise that the Lahore Zoo is the third oldest zoos in the entire world. The oldest, so an academic research by the UVAS Lahore tells us, is the Vienna Zoo, set up in 1779, which like Lahore was originally a privately-owned menagerie. When fame of this reached London, they opened the London Zoo which opened to the public in 1847. The Lahore Zoo was originally a small aviary belonging to Lal Mahundra Ram, who in 1872 donated it to the municipal corporation, who expanded it and soon animals were added. The second zoo in the sub-continent was established at Alipore in Kolkata, India, in 1876.

Originally the space allotted to the Lahore Zoo included the corner plot handed over to the secretive Freemasons, who in 1914 built their Masonic Temple. Later, Z.A. Bhutto took it over and today the Punjab Chief Minister’s Secretariat exists there. Politicians replaced animals. Later, a large chunk of land belonging to the zoo was taken over as an official car park. The animals lost again. On the eastern side a military establishment took over land for their offices. Also the police took over land on the western edge for their Civil Lines offices. On the eastern side various transgressions took place. So the land originally set aside for the zoo has been ‘officially’ – and ‘legally’ - grabbed for allegedly official ‘pious’ reasons.

One of the successes of the zoo is its programme to conserve species with an active reproduction programme of its birds and animals. Also of immense importance is the botanical species that exist on the premises. If included in the Jinnah Bagh next door, originally known as (East India) Company Bagh, and when the Company ceased it was renamed Lawrence Gardens. This was the place where in 1857 the Troop Train for Delhi collected. At this place the famous Club Sandwich was invented to quickly feed British soldiers with a wholesome meal. Come Pakistan and it was once again renamed Jinnah Bagh.

There was a time when the zoo and Lawrence Gardens had every known botanical species. Today only 70 botanical species remain in the zoo. But coming to the animals today the zoo has 134 species and 82 species of birds. To be specific it also has eight reptile species and 45 mammal species. Originally it was run by the Lahore Municipal Corporation (LMC). Then the Deputy Commissioner took it over as the corporation had started ‘gifting’ animals and birds. After 1962 the Livestock and Dairy Development Department took it over and then in 1982 it was handed over to the Wildlife and Parks Department. Today it is an autonomous self-financing part of the WPD. That is why if we want to be proud of the world’s third oldest and finest zoo, our schoolchildren must be encouraged to actively help them. Mind you this is what is done all over the world.

To dramatically improve this place needs at least US $5 million a year, and all of it must come from the people of Lahore and its business houses. Our politicians are in competition with the animals and birds and manage to take away most of the public money. The least the government can do is to make these donations tax-free to encourage business houses to appear humane.

In 1872 the zoo consisted solely of parrots and gamebirds, whose cages lie to the left of the main entrance. Peacocks, pigeons pheasants and partridges of every variety existed. The first animals to come to the zoo were Bengal tigers, lions, and monkeys. Then came the chimpanzees and other species of this family as well as bears. In the 1890s came four elephants which remained a star attraction for many years.

Of recent there have been a number of well-known animals who have died like Suzi the elephant and my friend Raja the hippo. With time it was noticed that cages alone do not solve the problem of keeping wildlife healthy. They all need open spaces, appropriate trees and other natural additions to avoid illnesses and cruelty to them from the public. That is why trees are so important.

There are many areas of interest. For example the zoo has an over 400-year-old banyan tree around which many a tale has been spun. Around this old tree live ducks and pelicans and other birds. Then there is the reptile house with cobras and vipers. To the southern side are antelopes and gazelles. To the eastern side are other animals, mostly from Africa like the zebras and giraffes. From time to time a lot of animals die, from age, but mostly from neglect. That is why the number of animals and birds in the Lahore Zoo keeps falling.

But we must be very careful not to confuse the number of animals with the number of species that the zoo has. This is to deceive officials. Zoo officials talk of rising numbers and never the number of species. What does this mean? It means that they have managed the reproduction programme of about a dozen animals, while they are unable to help rarer species. This is criminal and reflects sheer incompetence and lack of skill.

There is a need to cooperate with zoos all over the world and offer them animals and birds which we have in abundance, and in return seek species we do not possess. In this age of internet and computers, this is much easier than in the past.

But along with increasing the number of species, there is an urgent need for Pakistani landscapists and architects to plan better cages and open spaces for animals and birds, so that their safety are at an optimum. Also of crucial importance is to plan the botanical side of a zoo. As far as trees go they can seek assistance from the Punjab University’s Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology, Lahore, who can set up tissue culture labs for them. This should also be done for the Lawrence Gardens which is fast running out of exotic species. The area that is the present zoo should double the species and triple the trees.

What is needed is a long-term detailed plan, which should include constant fund raising coupled with transparency, animal specialists, bird specialists, environmental experts, botanical arrangements of their own as well as a separate plan for high quality animal and bird food production. All this needs money, but much more important is the correct expertise and imagination to make it the finest zoo in the world again. To my way of thinking we must teach our children more about animals and encourage them to donate small amounts when they can. Let them feel for our birds and animals. The politicians are a tried and tested lot.