The Sindh government has started working on the upgradation of the Karachi zoo by demolishing walls and removing encroachments from around the recreational spot.
For security reasons, security guards have been deployed and green cloth sheets erected where walls have been razed.
However, work on improving cages and other structures has yet to start. The project is worth Rs300.
Talking to The News at the zoo on Wednesday, Project Director Niaz Soomro, who is supervising the upgradation work on the chief minister’s orders, the zoo was 100 years old, and efforts were being made to maintain and keep the old things intact.
A 100-year-old fountain at the zoo was not working because there was a shortage of water, the official said.
When asked how modern cages would be made, he said it was a technical subject for which pecial engineers would be hired and a study carried out.
A visit to the zoo showed there was a lot to be done, cleanliness was required and sanitary staffers were nowhere to be seen.
During a visit to the zoo in February, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had said that there were lot of complaints against Karachi Zoological Gardens; therefore, he had decided to visit it personally to witness its plight.
He had vowed to make the zoo one of the best places to visit. He had admitted that the conditions were not so good but “I have included the upgradation of the zoo in the scheme launched under the Karachi package.”
Shah had said that he was against the tradition of keeping animals in cages. “I have a plan under which the animals and birds would be kept in a free atmosphere so that they could enjoy their life apart from giving knowledge of their attitudes, behavior to the visitors.”