JOIN USYet another Mumbai model: Byculla Zoo to introduce first-of-its-kind virtual tours
During the 14 months of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mumbai has shown the way – how it handled the first and second waves, managed to tide over the oxygen crisis and speed up the vaccination programme.
Now comes yet another Mumbai model – the Mumbai Zoo is set to become India's first zoo to start virtual tours professionally.
The Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan and Zoo, or the Mumbai Zoo, is one of the oldest zoos in India. Spread over 50 acres, it is popularly known as Byculla Zoo or Rani Baug.
“As we go through waves of pandemic and the lockdown, we have decided to take the zoo to people’s homes... this is a unique initiative and we are starting virtual tours,” Dr Sanjay Tripathi, the director of Mumbai Zoo, told DH.
According to him, the Mumbai Zoo has 270-plus animals and birds of 40 species and 4,000 trees of 200-plus species.
Over the past few months, ‘The Mumbai Zoo’ has made its presence felft on social media platforms – Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. “This has become very popular and generated very good traction,” said Dr Tripathi, adding that the virtual tours would begin right at the gate and cover the entire complex and compound.
Mumbai Zoo’s biologist Abhishek Satam has played a key role in photographing and videographing the zoo and its animals.
Satam, along with Mumbai Zoo’s veterinary officer Dipika Valsarajan, have lent voices for the programme.
“The Mumbai Zoo has a 160-year-old history. There are several unique things inside the zoo which people may not be aware about. Any zoo is about education and that is the thrust,” Satam told DH. “Not many would know that there are plants from six continents in our zoo,” he said.
Giving details, Satam said the Mumbai Zoo has 64 internal pocket gardens and 4,132 trees, which includes 291 rare trees and 15 medicinal trees. The zoo has 273 animals, which include 84 mammals of 13 species, 57 birds of 19 species and 32 reptiles and aquatic animals of 7 species. "The virtual tours have been professionally done and would be a superb educational tool," he said.
The larger zoo-compound also houses the Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, a building in Greco-Roman style erected in the memory of Lady Frere, an equestrian statue of King Edward VII of England made of black marble, originally known as Kala Ghoda and the David Sassoon clock tower.
Outside the museum, one can see the monolithic basalt elephant sculpture recovered from the sea, which originated from Elephanta Island or the Gharapuri Island.