Zoo will now be called Karachi Zoological and Botanical Garden

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has decided to change the name of the Karachi Zoological Gardens to the Karachi Zoological and Botanical Garden.

According to a press statement, the zoo is providing recreation to some 99 per cent citizens of Karachi. Mayor Wasim Akhtar said the zoo was not only a fun activity but a learning experience for the people.

The first phase of the zoo renovation, he said, would be completed by December with the support of the Sindh government. In the second phase, he shared, some animals would be purchased for the zoo. Akhtar was visiting the Karachi Zoological Gardens on Friday. Speaking to the media, he said that the new name of the zoo would be Karachi Zoological and Botanical Garden.

Metropolitan Commissioner Dr Syed Saif ur Rehman was also present on the occasion. According to Akhtar, the zoo has improved manifolds, and apart from recreational things at the zoo, the corporation had also made arrangements for learning. As for the renovation work, he said, walls of the zoo had been reconstructed. He requested the citizens to refrain from wall-chalking and pasting stuff on the walls.

He said that he was glad at how a part of the second Internal Karachi Biennale Art Festival 2019 was taking place at the zoo. In the exhibition, he said, art work of senior artists was available for common citizens. “The exhibition will continue to take place in the zoo in the years ahead.”

Answering a question regarding garbage disposal in the city, the mayor said that the cleanliness campaigns were temporary solutions. “The city gets clean temporarily in the campaigns, but it doesn’t last longer,” he said and added that in order to improve the situation, the process of cleaning the city would have to be reintroduced. The same departments of local government which used to clean the city earlier, according to the mayor, will have to be empowered. “Give powers to districts and strengthen the local bodies,” he said and added that the garbage of the city should daily be dumped at the landfill sites.

As for the sewage system, he said that it had been laid initially for some one million people, but it was now being used by more than 30 million r citizens. The entire sewage system would have to be replaced, he said.