The ‘eco-friendly’ incinerator, which had been lying idle for the last many months at the Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens in the city, was finally put to use on Friday, for the first time.
A nilagi, which is said to have died of foot and mouth disease on Thursday, was disposed off using the incinerator, set up on a area of 40x60 ft site near the compost yard inside the Zoo.It took over three hours for the animal weighing 150 kg to be completely burnt and disposed.
B P Ravi, Executive Director of the Zoo said that the incinerator had not been put to use as there was no electricity connection to the same. “Recently the electricity connection was approved, and it took a while for the under ground cables to be installed.”
“From today, all dead animals in the Zoo will be disposed using the incinerator. The Zoo however hopes that it does not end up using the incinerator on a regular basis,” he said in jest.
Mysore Zoo is the first to have put in place the technology in the State. Hyderabad Zoo was the only zoo in the country that boasted of such a facility.
According to Manjunath, manufacturer of Texol Incinerators, the hi-tech equipment can cremate 100 kg of animal carcass per hour.
There are two chambers to the incinerator. The first one burns the animal carcass, while the unburnt waste will be burnt in the second chamber. The smoke that emanates from both these chambers is then released into the ‘wet scrubber’, where water is used to pump impurities and suspended particulate matter, which is diluted and purified in the water. The residue is released into the environment through the 100 ft long chimney.
Till date, the Zoo was either burying or cremating small animals, those coming under Schedule 1, using firewood.
“This was causing a lot of pollution -- the firewood consumption was also very high. The new facility offers a scientific way of disposing animals in an environment friendly manner,” added Ravi.
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