Adil Najam and Owais Mughal
The phase of unrest and ‘zulm’ that Pakistani society is passing through, now seems to have made inroads in the Animal Kingdom.
Three precious animals have died in Lahore area zoos in the past 1 week and from news it looks like all deaths were preventable. A giraffe, a Bengal tiger and a neel gaaye (an antelope) are those who lost their lives.
Following two news have appeared in national press which give details of these accidents.
(1) Daily Times of January 2, 2009
A zebra attacked a female giraffe in the city zoo on Thursday afternoon and killed it in presence of zoo staff and dozens of visitors. According to sources, three giraffe, a male and two females, were imported from Australia in 2007 at a cost of Rs 7.4 million and were kept in one compound without keeping in view the risk factors.
On Thursday, a zebra attacked the giraffe and kicked it to death. The zoo staff was also present, but could not do anything to save the animal. An inquiry committee has been set up to investigate the incident. It will present its report to the Wildlife Department director general in a couple of days. aaj kal report
(2) The Daily Jang – Web Update, January 9, 2009
After eating the meat of a dead antelope (neel gaaye), the Bengal Tiger of the Woodland Zoo located on Raiwind Road Lahore also died. Earlier the neel gaaye had died after being bitten by some poisonous insect. The staff of the zoo used dead neel gaaye’s meat to feed the Bengal Tiger who also died after eating the meat. The deputy director of Woodland Park claims tiger did not die because of eating ‘neel gaaye’s meat. They will conduct post mortem to find out the exact cause of tiger’s death. The exact news as it appeared in jang is below:
Some Other Posts at ATP:
1. Baluchitherium: The Beast of Balochistan
2. The Leaping Oxen of Kanjwani
Wiki is calling neel gaye an antelope and its binomial name being ‘Boselaphus tragocamelus’. See photo and text here
Meengla, yes I’ve been thinking of doing a post on blind dolphins of Indus for a while now. Thanks for reminding. Now may be a chance to write about them. Every now and then one reads about them being rescued from shallow waters of canals fed by Sukkur barrage.
About neel gaaye, i am not sure myself. At one website I saw them written as wild boar. Let me double check and I’ll make the correction if needed. I also think wild boar is more from a pig family and neel gaaye is closer to deer, antelope family
Yeah, really, was it a baby giraffe?
And ‘Wild Boar’ is the same as a ‘Neel Gaaye’?! I thought a wild-boar is related to pigs/swine while Neel Gaaye is more deer-like?
I may be wrong, but could someone please post some stock-photos of these animals? Preferably, living ones. Enough of dead, already. Whether human or animals, I don’t want to see any more of them.
PS. Is there any article on ATP about the blind Indus dolphins? They may not be around for very long, you know.
I think our active Chief Minister must take notice of this dark incident,innocent animals should be protected they are our guests in this country.
Fascinating and bizarre. How does a zebra kick to death an animal as large and strong as a giraffe? Was it a baby giraffe?And secondly, what would drive a relatively docile creature to do that? Are the zoo staff making stuff up? Or is this for real?
And the wild boar, are there insects THAT poisonous in Lahore? Any guess as to what it might be, or do we just have to leave it at “some poisonous insect?”