LAHORE, Dec 6: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has directed the Planning and Development Department to examine the changes recommended by a senior official of the provincial wildlife department in the proposed master plan designed to modernise the Lahore Zoo, sources told Dawn on Wednesday.

Sources said the provincial wildlife department official, who had suggested the changes to the proposed plan, had found it lacking in many areas in a summary sent to the chief minister. He had expressed the apprehension that it would not achieve its goal and the facility would remain constricted and old in concept even after the execution of the scheme.

The summary carried numerous proposals and recommendations for improving the zoo and the chief minister has sent the master plan to the P&D department with directions to examine the proposed changes.

The project - Master Plan Development and Improvement of Lahore Zoo - envisages modernisation of the zoo at a cost of Rs202 million over a period of 18 months starting from September 2005. Sources said the consultants hired for the Lahore Zoo had completed the planning and designing and had been paid Rs3 million till now and only 16 per cent of the civil works had been completed so far, which had given rise to fears that the project might be delayed for months.

According to the summary, the zoo should be developed on modern lines under which birds should live in an environment developed according to their natural habitat and instead of caging they be kept in an open environment surrounded by moats and fences.

“The zoo should be a place of entertainment and education where children acquaint themselves with animals in their natural environment. The facility should provide a harmonious and comfortable environment for the visiting families who can walk around without being jostled or pushed.

“Most of the big animals shall remain in cages or in limited space. The rhinoceros, hippopotamus and bears are the larger animals which will remain in their old constricted locations; the only open living concept developed is for chimpanzee where the moat was poorly designed and has collapsed. Bird aviary has been developed as walk-through aviary but is small in size and thousands of visitors passing through all day will result in mortality to the highly-sensitive and expensive birds,” says the summary.

It further reads “the zoo space is limited to 16 acres for the animals and eight acres for the 9,000 people visiting the facility daily. No innovative ideas have been put forward to re-adjust locally and create more space, for example, a 150-foot high hill occupies 3.50 acres valuable space which is not utilised optimally.”

The official pointed out that the consultants did not have a zoo specialist on their panel and were at best carrying out a landscaping exercise resulting in a mushroom growth of brick and mortar works and unnecessary shelters for the visitors. All these additions, he said, would give an urbanised look and restrict visitor’s movement even further.

Besides, the summary said, no diagnostic laboratory had been proposed which was extremely necessary for animal care.

The wildlife department official in his proposal said the consultants either employed a full-time experienced zoo specialist on their panel or their consultancy was curtailed with the designing being taken over by the C&W chief architect and resident supervision by the chief engineer.

The zoo design shall take into consideration the limited space available for visitor movement and more space is created by remodelling the 3.3-acre hill to accommodate tigers, leopards and Puma of the cat family in an open environment.

The car parking is being shifted to the area of nursery next to the Mall measuring 30 kanals as an underground parking with a roof garden accommodating the giraffes and zebras. A new fish aquarium is proposed for addition at the old parking place.

The PC-1 of the master plan shall be revised accordingly due to change in scope, he said.