The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) on Wednesday informed Calcutta High Court that it has initiated an investigation into the Alipore Zoological Garden case.
During the hearing of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) regarding several animals missing from the zoo, Additional Solicitor General Ashok Kumar Chakraborty, on behalf of the CZA, stated: “An enquiry is on and a report is expected in two weeks. We are seeking time.”
Petitioners’ counsel Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya submitted: “In the heart of the city, there is a zoo; attempts are being made to sell the land. Can the state government sell the land in violation of the Forest Act? One tender was floated but it got no response, so they floated another.”
The Division Bench of Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Smita Das De, noting the enquiry was on, posted the matter for hearing on September 1.
In July, a three-member CZA team visited the zoo to carry out an audit and examine allegations of a gross mismatch in wildlife inventory, also checking records of animal transfers. The West Bengal Forest Department launched a separate probe. Meanwhile, zoo director Arun Mukherjee was transferred to the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling Hills, which authorities termed routine.
City-based voluntary organisation SWAZON had filed a petition earlier that month accusing the zoo of mismanagement, with over 300 animals “missing overnight” from records. The petition alleges that while the zoo had 672 animals at the end of 2023-24, the number dropped to 351 at the start of 2024-25 — a fall of 321 in one night.
“The unexplained vanishing of animals, including those classified as endangered, suggests either gross negligence or intentional suppression of facts. Neither the Central Zoo Authority, nor the West Bengal Zoo Authority (WBZA), nor the administration of the Alipore Zoo has issued any public statement, (or) filed any report addressing these discrepancies. Given that the CZA disburses funds to the WBZA for the management of zoos, and that both are publicly funded bodies, these unexplained disappearances of animals demand immediate audit and investigation,” the petition read.
It cites alleged inconsistencies: on March 3, 2011, the zoo had 1,452 animals, which allegedly dwindled to 672 by March 31, 2024. “Between March 31, 2017 (1,186 animals) and April 1, 2017 (910 animals), 276 animals were unaccounted for overnight. The West Bengal Zoo Authority’s figures showed a discrepancy of 302 animals in the same period. In 2022, the closing stock of endangered animals was 190, but the opening stock on April 1, 2022 was 131 — a difference of 59 endangered animals with no explanation,” the petition further read.