Coolers, Curtains, Fruits, Cool Drinking Water: How Van Vihar Denizens Are Beating Heat

Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh): Room coolers, seasonal fruits, clean cool drinking water, green grass, canvas curtains, water sprinklers and jets and two veterinarians. This and much more facilities are being provided to keep the denizens of the Van Vihar National Park in the city cool as temperature continues to rise.   

Home to five lions, 13 tigers and 13 leopards

Among carnivores, Van Vihar is home to five lions, 13 tigers and 13 leopards. All have their separate dens which have been fitted with desert coolers that run from 9 am till dawn the next day. To ensure that power supply disruptions do not affect the arrangement, the Van Vihar has a solar power plant as well as generators as backup.  

All openings in their dens have been covered with canvas curtains to keep hot air at bay and are cleaned with water mixed with disinfectant every morning. Their watering holes are filled with 200 litres of cool and chlorinated water every day.

Chlorine tablets are added to the water to purify it

Each of them is served 5-7 kg buffalo meat every day. As for herbivores like spotted deer, nilgai, sambhar and others, they are given green grass and Sanchi Sudana twice a day - at 10 am and 4 pm. Their watering holes have been cleaned and lined with chuna. Chlorine tablets are added to the water to purify it. 

The Van Vihar has 16 bears and their meals comprises seasonal fruits like grapes,  watermelon and muskmelon, coconut, dalia made of five cereals served with four litres of milk. Their dens are also air-cooled. Water sprinklers and water jets are used to provide relief to the winged inhabitants of the National Park. 

According to ranger, Safari, Van Vihar, Kailash Narayan Sharma, though the temperature inside Van Vihar is a bit lower than outside owing to the vicinity of the Upper Lake and dense vegetation, the wild animals still need protection from heat as they are not living in their natural environs.  “If despite all this facilities, any animal falls ill due to heat we have a team of two veterinarians and also indoor wards,” Sharma says.