Come summer months and it’s not just the people of the city who get thirsty, but also the animals of the zoo at the Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) near it. The 1,500 animals, birds and reptiles of the park located on the outskirts of Bengaluru, need about one lakh litres of water every day.
But with piped water supply being irregular and the park’s borewell going dry, officials in charge of its upkeep are having to explore other sources to satisfy their needs. They now plan to bring water to the park from a lake located near the zoo area.Executive director, BBP, Dr R.Raju says a proposal has been submitted to the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board for the park to draw water from the Doddannanakere inside the Bannerghatta forests.
“The lake has a vast watershed area frequented by elephants. We have proposed laying a pipeline from it to two large tanks that will be built in the safari and zoo areas to store water,” he reveals. Water is essential for the animals in the enclosures as if thirsty and hungry they can become very irritable . “Besides water for for drinking, we need large amounts of it to clean enclosures as well to keep the animals safe from infection,” Dr Raju explains To meet the immediate needs of the park, the BBP has intensified its rain water harvesting and roof top water harvesting programmes. The roof of the Tiger Rescue Centre will now have a water harvesting system to channell rain water to water tanks. The BBP also plans to install a treatment plant in future to help reuse the water.