Bengaluru, Tripura zoos to exchange animals

Agartala, Feb 18 (IANS) Bannerghatta Zoo and National ark in Bengaluru and Tripura's Sepahijala Zoo will soon exchange animals, an official said here Wednesday.

"As per an agreement, Bannerghatta zoo would provide two lions, three black bucks, two fog deers and two porcupines," Krishna Gopal Roy, director of the Sepahijala Zoo, told reporters.

He said, in exchange, Sepahijala zoo would provide to Bannerghatta zoo a pair of spectacle monkeys, three pig-tailed monkeys and two Asiatic bears."

Roy said both zoos have got the necessary approvals for the animal exchange programme from the Central Zoo Authority.

Last year Visakhapatnam's Indira Gandhi Zoological Park and the Sepahijala Zoo had also exchanged animals.

Sepahijala Zoo, 25 km south of the state capital, is one of India's 22 large zoos.

This is the only zoo in India located within a wildlife sanctuary, the Sepahijala Wildlife Sanctuary. A portion of the sanctuary was also declared Clouded Leopard National Park.