Bhopal: Van Vihar’s Ambitious Plan Of Getting Zebra, Giraffe Hangs In Balance

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The ambitious project of Van Vihar to get zebra, giraffe from abroad continues to remain a dream even as it was conceptualised long ago. Since the announcement of the project, one forest minister and two directors of Van Vihar were changed but things are yet to take concrete shape.

It was the then forest minister Kunwar Vijay Shah who had announced that zebra and giraffe would be brought to Van Vihar so that new species of wild animals could be added into Van Vihar and tourists could also get the chance to see them.

No national park or any tiger reserve of the state is having animals of both the rare species. Had they been brought, Van Vihar national park could have more varieties of wild species and even its earnings through sale of tickets could have increased further.

The initial idea of Van Vihar was to float an international tender to get animals of both species under animal exchange programme. The plan was to bring three giraffes and two zebras from any south African country and Van Vihar officials have even sought funds from the state government but to no avail.

It was in the year 2023 that the then forest minister Kunwar Vijay Shah had announced to bring zebra and giraffe to Van Vihar. Now Kunwar Vijay Shah is a minister of the tribal department. In the meantime, two Van Vihar directors including Padampriya Balakrishna and Avdesh Meena were transferred since the conceptualisation of the project and now it is seeing the tenure of new Van Vihar director Vijay Kumar.