Mumbai: Shakti and Karishma steal the show on Day 1 as Byculla zoo reopens

A child captures tiger Shakti on a mobile phone at Byculla zoo on Monday. The big cat was brought from Aurangabad last year. Pic/Suresh Karkera

The Byculla zoo welcomed visitors on Monday after remaining shut for several months due to the COVID outbreak. While 1,419 people visited the premises, most eyes were glued on Shakti and Karishma, a tiger pair that were brought to the city last year. Civic officials justified the low footfall saying the zoo reopened on a working day.

Officials at the zoo, also known as Veer Mata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan, said the tiger pair was brought from Aurangabad and had been kept in quarantine for almost a year. The zoo had planned to showcase them on March 25 last year, but as the coronavirus-induced lockdown kicked in, the premises remained out of bounds for outsiders.

Among the other new species of animals on display are jackal, hyena, bear and leopard. These exhibits were inaugurated by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on January 26. They are also generating a lot of interest among the visitors, said zoo officials.

Summarising Day 1, zoo director Sanjay Tripathi said, "Social-distancing norms were followed as the crowd came in at staggered intervals. We did not face any issues over people not wearing masks as everybody followed the instructions. Few warnings were given by our guards to those who had put their masks on chin but they were immediately adhered to. The pair of tigers saw a good response today and we are expecting a larger turnout during the weekend."

To promote itself, the zoo will also use platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and Mayor Kishori Pednekar will launch these social media accounts and pages on Tuesday. Officials said they have engaged a dedicated team to take Shakti and Karishma beyond the boundaries of the zoo to the digital world.

1,419
No. of visitors at the Byculla zoo on Monday