Bhopal office of SBI adopts tigress (Lead, superseding earlier story)
By IANSMonday, February 1, 2010
BHOPAL - The regional head office of the State Bank of India (SBI) here has adopted a tigress of the Van Vihar National Park, an official said Monday.
The bank adopted the tigress, named Sita, under the animal adoption scheme after paying Rs.125,000 for one year. This is the 22nd case of adoption of a wild animal in the national park in the past 13 months.
Sita was brought to the Van Vihar National Park from Jagdalpur way back on June 22, 1994 when she was just nine months old.
Under the adoption scheme, an animal of choice can be adopted by remitting a reasonable fee needed to meet its expenses in the zoo.
For adopting a lion or a tiger, Rs.125,000 has to be paid annually, for a leopard the annual cost is Rs.50,000, for bears Rs.65,000, hyenas Rs.30,000, jackal Rs.25,000, crocodile Rs.30,000, alligator Rs.40,000, python Rs.6,000 and snake Rs.2,000. This covers food and medical bills and upkeep of the animal’s surroundings.
The amount to be spent on these animals is exempted from income tax. Also, the nameplate of the person or the organisation adopting an animal is affixed in front of the animal’s enclosure and up to six members of the sponsor’s family are allowed free entry in Van Vihar once a week to see the adopted animal.
Chief General Manager of SBI M. Bhagwant Rao provided bankers-check of Rs.125,000 to S.S. Rajput, director of Van Vihar, who in turn provided the certificate of adoption of the tigress to the SBI management.
The Van Vihar National Park in Bhopal launched its animal adoption scheme on Jan 1, 2009 to spread awareness about wildlife conservation.
“The idea came from human adoption. Like human beings, animals too need care, the idea was to involve people in wildlife conservation,” Rajput said.
The zoo sprawls over 445 hectares and is located in the heart of Bhopal. It has multiple status of being a large zoo, a rescue centre for wildlife and a tiger and vulture breeding centre.
It has a wide range of animals - lions, tigers, leopards, bears, hyenas, jackals, crocodiles, alligators, pythons and 207 bird species.
