A file photo of gorilla Thabo relishing his favorite delicacy on the occasion of his 15th birthday at the Mysore Zoo. Mysuru Zoo officials will handle the overall management of the two-day conference to be held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Mysore.
The Karnataka Zoo Authority (ZAK) will host the National Conference for Zoo Directors on January 18-19 when zoo directors of zoological parks in India will meet in Mysuru to debate on master planning and capacity building for species management and conservation breeding.
The two-day conference will be held at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Mysore. The Central Zoo Authority has supported the convention, the overall management of which will be handled by the authorities of the century-old Mysuru Zoo.
Javed Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary, Karnataka Forest Department, will inaugurate the conference at 9 am in the presence of Dr. Sanjay Kumar Shukla, Member Secretary, Central Zoo Authority, Raj Kishore Singh, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief of Forest Force, Karnataka. Forest Department, BP Ravi, Member Secretary, Karnataka Zoo Authority, ZAK President Shivakumar M. and Mysuru Zoo Executive Director Ajit Kulkarni.
Shri Akhtar will deliver the keynote address. Shri Kulkarni will outline the agenda of the conference and the deliberations to be held during the two-day summit.
Dr. Shukla will speak in the first session on ‘Zoo Designing’ on the topic ‘Transition of Indian Zoos: Ancient to Modern’ followed by the inaugural session. Modern takes on zoo design, a special safari design, disaster management and design measures will be presented and discussed.
BP Ravi will make a presentation on ‘The way forward for the development of Indian zoos’.
The second session will be on ‘Zoo Health’ with presentations on – Disease surveillance and preventive measures in captive animals; Importance of disease surveillance in cross boundary animal shipments and international animal movements by experts, and the process involved in preparing animal health certificates for veterinary care and population control.
The final session of the day is on ‘Policy Guidelines for Zoos’ under which experts will speak on modalities for international acquisition and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and national level acquisition in India. and procedures.
The sessions on the second day of the conference will be on zoo planning, conservation education and master planning.
Rajeev Ranjan, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden, Forest Department will address the concluding session on January 19.