Islamabad High Court has ordered the administration of Marghzar zoo to hand over management rights to the Ministry of Climate Change. The court was hearing a case related to the mistreatment of zoo animals.
During the hearing, the judge observed that the current administration has failed to take care of animals properly and ordered them to surrender the charge until the next hearing. The case will resume on August 29.
The judge has directed the secretary of climate change to appoint a suitable person to take care of everyday affairs of the zoo until the court’s next orders.
He observed that large scale measures were required on an urgent basis to “save detained animals from further harm and distress.”
Recently, a wildlife activist asked the court to hand over the zoo’s Himalayan brown bear to the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board for his medical treatment.
In its order, the court referred to the zoo administration’s confession that it did not have enough funds to treat the animal at the zoo.
“The zoo administration does not deny that it is neither equipped nor have sufficient funds and facilities for taking proper care of the animals which have been detained at the zoo,” it said.
The order further reflected that the zoo administration had failed to provide specialized care to the Marsh crocodile and the Mongolian Eagle as well.
Good decision
We need to tackle root cause i.e. our merit system for hiring is faulty; purely based on how much numbers/grades are scored by person in school/college/university. What about the passion, interests and skill-set of candidate? Islamabad zoo is living example of my theory, government hired zoo staff with good grades but zero passion/interest in wild-life.
This zoo has very nice Dino-Park where real-scale models of dinosaurs are placed. It’s really a good add-on and must visit place for kids. Once I asked staff their, why the model of two dinosaurs discovered in Pakistan (named as Pakisaurs and Balochisaurs) are missing; the staff was not aware of these species. While real-scale model of Balochisaurs is placed in ‘Pakistan Museum of Natural History’ hardly 15Km from the zoo :/