Forest Minister Umang Singhar and Van Vihar officials curiously looking for release of lions from special transportation vehicle at Van Vihar National Park in State capital on Thursday.

 

 

A pair of lions aged four years each reached Van Vihar National Park from Kanan Pendari Zoological Park, Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) on Thursday. They have been kept in quarantine as of now. Van Vihar National Park officials are ecstatic after the arrival of two members from canine family.

 

 

Male lion in its enclosure after being freed from specially designed transportation vehicle. 

 

 

“Both lions are stressed as they have been brought by covering a long distance by road. They will take couple of days to be normal. They have been kept separately. It will be after 21 days from now that their health parameters will be checked. If all is fine then they will be kept on public display,” said Van Vihar sources. The distance between Kanan Pendari Zoological Park, Bilaspur, and Van Vihar National Park is over 600 kilometre. The pair of lions reached Van Vihar National Park around 4 pm. Forest Minister Umang Singhar, Secretary H S Mohanta, retired CCF S P Tiwari etc, Director of Van Vihar were present to receive them. A big curiosity was visible on the faces of everyone when pair of lions was being taken out from the special transportation vehicle. After being taken out from special transportation vehicle the lions were kept in separate enclosures.

 

The male lion is Satya while lioness is Nandi. Both are offspring of same lioness. “As both are born to same lioness and henceforth they will not be allowed to breed. We are looking to bring lion from different gene pool for breeding purpose,” said Van Vihar sources said.

 

Forest Minister Umang Singhar made special efforts to get pair of lions to Van Vihar. With their arrival, number of lion family in Van Vihar has increased to six, including four males, two females. Van Vihar officials are happy with the arrival of pair of lions as they are likely to attract more crowd at Van Vihar National Park.