'Need to provide zoo animals food as per diet chart': Assam Minister over beef row

Guwahati (Assam) [India], October 14 : Responding to the demand to exclude beef from the diet of animals, Assam Minister of Environment and Forest Parimal Suklabaidya said the animals living in zoos could have been given buffalo meat instead of beef but the state does not have many buffaloes. He added that the authorities need to provide food to animals as per their diet chart.
The Minister said that although buffalo meat could have been a substitute for beef, the state lacks a significant buffalo population to make it a permanent source of food.
"They (wildlife) cannot survive on mutton or pork alone, could have been given buffalo meat instead of beef but we don't have many buffaloes in Assam. We float tenders to get beef, buffalo meat, mutton, pork," Suklabaidya told ANI on Tuesday.
"Their demand is fair up to an extent, that our cattle population should increase. But if we have t'Need to provide zoo animalso keep our wildlife alive and healthy, we will have to provide them food as per their diet chart," he added.
Earlier this week, an Assam BJP leader held a small protest outside the main gate at Guwahati Zoo demanding no beef be served to the carnivores, especially tigers.