North Bengal Wild Animals Park takes measures to protect animals from heatwave

May 04, 2024

Siliguri (WB), May 04 (ANI): Amid the heatwave conditions in West Bengal, the North Bengal Wild Animals Park in Siliguri has taken several measures to protect the animals, especially tigers, leopards, and Asiatic black bears, from the rising heatwave in the region. The park authorities said that they have installed water ponds and fans at night shelters for animals, which are running 24 hours a day to protect them from the heatwave.The current temperature of Siliguri ranges between 36-40 degrees Celsius.Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has announced that West Bengal will continue to experience heatwaves for the next three days.E Vijaya Kumar, Director of North Bengal Wild Animals Park, popularly known as Bengal Safari Park, says, "This year the temperature is crossing 39-40 degrees Celsius. To protect our animals, we have initiated many actions like creating water sprinklers to create a humid atmosphere, providing them drinking water, twice a day, minimum, installing air coolers, and fans and offering them ice cubes to play with... We have 30-40 species in this park.”Although the park remains a major attraction for tourists and locals, adverse weather conditions have caused a decrease in daily visitors by around 1000 to 2000.The North Bengal Wild Animals Park, commonly known as Bengal Safari Park is a one-of-a-kind open-air zoological park in the state, having around 800 animals of 45 species spread over 297 hectares on the fringes of Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary off NH10 on the northeast outskirts of Siliguri.