Peshawar Zoo gets crocodiles

Three mugger crocodiles, donated by the Sindh Wildlife Department, have arrived in Peshawar Zoo where a special enclosure has been constructed for them.

Peshawar Zoo Deputy Director Haseena Anbarin told The Express Tribune that the zoo is being developed and built as per a master plan which was devised with an aim to provide education, recreation and research facilities at the same time.

The development activities at the zoo are divided into different phases so that the work couldn’t affect the flow of visitors, she observed, adding that recently the crocodile enclosure was completed after which efforts got under way for the procurement of the reptiles.

In the meantime, Sindh Wildlife Conservator Javed Ahmed Mahar was contacted for the procurement of these reptiles and he agreed on donating crocodiles as a goodwill gesture.

She added that a formal letter was sent to Secretary Forestry and Wildlife Department, Government of Sindh by Secretary Climate Change, Forestry, Environment and Wildlife Department Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in this regard.

Later Mehr coordinated and extended his cooperation for the translocation of the crocodiles. Due to weather conditions and severity of monsoon rains the shifting was halted till suitable weather approached.

Peshawar Zoo prepared and sent team on February 13 and the task was handed over to Dara Muneer Qazi, Deputy Conservator Wildlife, Shaheed Benazirabad (formerly Nawabshah).

Haseena said that the zoo has been supplied with the mugger crocodiles, which is found throughout the subcontinent.

According to a Wikipedia entry, the mugger crocodile is a medium-sized broad-snouted reptile.

It is native to freshwater habitats from southern Iran to the Indian subcontinent, where it inhabits marshes lakes, rivers and artificial ponds.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 18^th, 2023.