Aurangabad, July 13:
The chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has informed the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator to submit a detailed proposal stating the requirement of additional land and fund needed for Wildlife Safari Park (in Mitmita), on priority. The Aurangabad Smart City Development Corporation Limited (ASCDCL) will be allocating Rs 250 crore.
The meeting held at CM's bungalow was attended by MLA Sanjay Shirsaat, MLA Pradeep Jaiswal, additional chief secretary (Revenue) Nitin Karir, principal secretary (Urban Development) Mahesh Pathak, principal secretary (CMO) Vikas Kharage, principal secretary (Forest) Venugopal Reddy and the AMC's administrator Astik Kumar Pandey.
Aurangabad is the Tourism capital of Maharashtra and bears historical and cultural importance. While developing the destination to attract international and domestic tourists, the places of interest including Safari Park in the city should also be developed on par with Ellora and Ajanta Caves so that the visitors while visiting Aurangabad would get prompted to include visiting the Park in their tour itinerary, pointed out the chief minister.
Presently, the Siddharth Garden is on 14 acres of land. It includes the zoo area as well. The zoo is the region's biggest place housing around 250 wildlife animals (of various categories) including rabbits, deer, nilgai, peacocks, jackal, fox, tiger, lion, bear, etc. However, the existing land is insufficient, therefore, the development of a new wildlife park on 40 hectares of land as per the guidelines and parameters fixed by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) is underway. Hence today's meeting had a discussion on the need for additional land required for the wildlife park.
AMC needs land to develop natural habitat
There is a severe shortage of space in the zoo. The wildlife animals needed adequate space and natural habitat for survival. Due to the absence of space, the CZA had canceled the license of the zoo, two years ago. However, it had granted the permission on condition that the AMC will be shifting the zoo at Mitmita. Presently, ASCDCL is constructing a boundary wall at the park by spending Rs 11 crore from the Smart City project. The ASCDCL has made a financial provision of
Rs 250 crore for the Safari Park.