National Zoological Park, New Delhi celebrates World Snake Day 2023

National Zoological Park, New Delhi (Delhi Zoo) has celebrated World Snake Day on 16.07.2023. The purpose of World Snake Day celebration is to protect snakes by raising awareness about snakes of India, snakes disbelieves and importance of snakes in our ecosystem. On this occasion, an enrichment activity was conducted by snake keeping staff by providing cage furniture in the reptile house. Plantation was also conducted inside the snake houses.

At reptile house interaction with about 350 visitors and small children’s was conducted about snakes and healthy lifestyle following the Mission LiFE. Reptile house walk was conducted and visitors interacted with the snake keepers. During this visit visitors participated enthusiastically in it and learn the role of zoo in conservation of snakes. Literature on reptiles was also distributed among visitors. At present National Zoological Park have 31 no of snakes of 07 species.

About the National Zoological Park, New Delhi

• The National Zoological Park (originally Delhi Zoo) is a 176-acre (71 ha) zoo in New Delhi, India. A 16th-century citadel, a sprawling green island and a motley collection of animals and birds, all in the middle of a burgeoning urban Delhi. The zoo can be seen on foot or using a battery-operated vehicle which can be rented at the zoo. Visitors are not permitted to bring any food other than drinking water, but there is a canteen in the zoo.
• The Delhi zoo came decades later after New Delhi was built. although the idea to have a zoo at the national capital was mooted in 1951, the park was inaugurated in November 1959.
• In 1952 the Indian Board for Wildlife created a committee to look into creating a zoo for Delhi. The government of India was to develop the zoo and then turn it over to Delhi as a working enterprise. In 1953 the committee approved the location of the zoo, and in October 1955 it assigned N. D. Bachkheti of the Indian Forest Service to oversee the creation of the zoo.
• Initially Major Aubrey Weinman of the Ceylon Zoological Garden (now the National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka) was asked to help draw the plans for the zoo, but because he was not available for the long term, Carl Hagenbeck of the Zoological Garden of Hamburg was hired. In March 1956, Hagenbeck presented a preliminary plan, which included the recommendation to use moated enclosures for the new zoo. The plan was modified as needed to account for local conditions, and approved by the Indian government in December 1956.
• By the end of 1959, the Northern part of the zoo was complete, and animals which had been arriving for some time and which had been housed in temporary pens were moved into their permanent homes. The park was opened on 1 November 1959 as the Delhi Zoo. In 1982 it was officially renamed to National Zoological Park, with hopes that it could become a model for other zoos in the country.

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