Tourists’ influx rising at Van Vihar to see lions
   Date :20-Feb-2020

Tourists influx rising at
 
 
Staff Reporter :
 
After Van Vihar National Park shifted both lions in display cage, large number of tourists are visiting the park to see lions. However, park management has decided to alternately display lions in the same cage. Visitors are enthusiast to seen the lions in city zoo. On Wednesday, large number of tourists especially visited Van Vihar to see the lions. They kept on waiting for an hour to get a glimpse on lions. However, both lions are currently trying to escape from the crowd. Van Vihar official said that both lions cannot be kept together in the same cage as they are sibling.
 
A K Jain, Deputy Director of Van Vihar, said that both lions cannot be left free in display cage due to protocols. There are four lions in Van Vihar but all of them are in enclosure because of protocols. All these lions were brought to the park after rescuing from circus. Lioness Nandi is spending maximum time with brother lion Satya. The park officials said that most of time she was sitting before the net of brother Satya and preferred to stay away from the crowd. Lioness is quite shy and she did not prefer to appear before the tourist. She is trying to adjust in her new house.
 
The park management has conducted medical test of both lion and lioness on February 6 and 7 in which male lion was fit to shift in the cage. But lioness was shy due to which park management delayed her shifting. Earlier, both lions were in a quarantine enclosure where they were adjusted well. The pair of lion has been brought to the park to re-start the breeding project. Few more lions will be brought to the park after few days as these two lions are sibling and they cannot mate to each other.
 
A K Jain said that guidelines of NTCA says to keep animal in quarantine at least for 21 days after translocation. He said doctors of the park have conducted medical test of lion in which they have been found to be fit for the shifting to cage. The pair of lions was brought to the park on January 16 from Kanan Pendari Zoo, Bilaspur.