Mumbai, March 5 Mumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde has written a letter to Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, requesting his government to provide two pairs of Asiatic lions for the city zoo as a gesture of goodwill, officials said.
In the letter written on February 25, Tawde urged the Gujarat government to facilitate the transfer of two male and two female lions to the Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Botanical Udyan and Zoo, popularly known as Ranibaug, in the Byculla area of Mumbai.
According to the letter, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has completed Phase I of the zoo's modernization project, which includes facilities such as the Humboldt penguin exhibit, internal gardens, ticketing office, animal hospital, quarantine area, and other civic amenities.
Under Phase II of the project, new enclosures and habitats have been created for several animals, including Asiatic lions, tigers, sloth bears, hyenas, leopards, spotted deer, and birds.
The mayor said the lion enclosure has been specially designed on the theme of Maldhari settlements near the Gir Forest National Park in Gujarat, and includes caves, water facilities, resting shelters, machans, and dense plantation, along with an acrylic viewing gallery for visitors.
According to the guidelines of the Central Zoo Authority, the zoo had earlier proposed obtaining Asiatic lions from the Sakkarbaug Zoo in Junagadh on an exchange basis.
A proposal approved in March 2019 envisioned the exchange of two pairs of lions in return for animals and birds, including zebras, cockatiels, night herons, and a hornbill, the letter said.
However, the exchange could not materialize as the required zebras were not available, leaving the Asiatic lion enclosure at the Mumbai zoo vacant since its construction, it said.
The mayor said that the civic body has been following up on the matter for the past four to five years and requested Patel to intervene so that Mumbaikars get to see lions at the zoo.