The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday directed a committee constituted by the Sindh chief minister to visit the Karachi zoo on November 2 to examine brown bear and other animals, their physical and mental condition, and the circumstances under which they have been kept.
The direction came on an application filed by the counsel of a petitioner who had sought shifting of a brown bear from the Karachi zoo to an Islamabad sanctuary. The counsel submitted that the court order with regard to inspection of the brown bear and other animals had not been complied with yet.
The SHC had earlier directed a committee constituted by the Sindh CM to submit a detailing the animals kept at the zoo, their physical and mental condition, and the circumstances under which they had been kept.
The petitioner’s counsel, Jibran Nasir, submitted that despite the court order, the committee had not scheduled the visit till yet. He submitted that even the proposed cage to be placed in the enclosure of the brown bear to lure the animal into it for the purpose of transportation had not been placed.
The counsel said that he had written letters to the respondents for complying with the court order but all in vain. A division bench of the high court headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro after hearing the application and consent of the provincial law officer fixed November 2 for the committee to visit the brown bear and other animals at the zoo examine their physical and mental condition in order to submit a report. The bench also directed a law officer to submit a progress report with regard to shifting of brown bear on the next date of hearing.
The court had on a previous hearing observed that the issue pertained not only to one animal, but hundreds of animals that were being kept in captivity prima facie for entertainment of people.
The high court had observed that it had decided to examine the whole concept of keeping the zoos and the animals in cage in the context of the Section 47(b) of the Sindh Wildlife Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management Act, 2020.
The SHC had ordered that the committee already notified by the CM would visit the Karachi zoo in the company of elephant trainer and animal rights activist Jude Allen Pereira, Sindh Institute of Animal Health’s Dr Nazeer Hussain Kalhoro, the petitioner’s counsel and wildlife photographer Zafeer Ahmed Shaikh and prepare a detailed report statomg the number of animals in captivity, their physical and mental condition, and the circumstances under which they were being kept.
It is pertinent to mention that the SHC had ordered shifting of Rano from the zoo to a bear sanctuary managed by the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board as the brown bear was without a companion. The other bear at the zoo died way back in 2020.
The petitioner’s counsel, Jibran Nasir, said an expert committee report had unanimously found the brown bear to be under stress, and recommended her immediate relocation to a sanctuary until her DNA sequencing was conducted to identify her exact species.
Nasir said the expert committee, which comprised qualified experts in wildlife, veterinary care and ecology, had made specific and time-sensitive recommendations, including Rano’s immediate relocation to a sanctuary, and further steps contingent upon the DNA confirmation of her sub-species.