Chandigarh, May 25
Taking a serious view of the supply of meat of dead animals to Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park (Chhat Bir Zoo), the Punjab Forest and Wildlife Department has decided to send a team of zoo staffers to the makeshift slaughterhouse at Saharanpur and examine the quality of buffalo meat.
The department will also take up the issue with the Uttar Pradesh Government and take necessary action against the veterinary officials and others allegedly involved in issuing “quality certificate” for buffalo meat to the meat contractor without inspecting the animals to be slaughtered.
Talking to The Tribune, Mr A.S. Dogra, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, Punjab, said he had directed Mr Kuldeep Kumar, Director of Chhat Bir Zoo, to constitute a fact-finding team of zoo staffers comprising veterinary doctors to verify the facts.
Mr Dogra has also directed the zoo Director to dispatch the team to inspect the slaughterhouse where the animals are been slaughtered by the meat contractor before supplying their meat to Chhat Bir Zoo.
Mr Kuldeep Kumar claimed that the zoo had been accepting only that meat which contained a certificate issued by the Veterinarian of Municipal Corporation, Saharanpur.
The supply of meat of dead animals to over 60 carnivores of Chhat Bir Zoo by Mr Inaam Qureshi, a Saharanpur-based meat contractor, was highlighted by The Tribune on Wednesday.
Meat of dead buffaloes, some of whom had died because of infectious diseases, could be a threat to the health of zoo inhabitants.
