SHC orders shifting of Rano to Islamabad from Karachi Zoo

In view of inadequate arrangements made for Rano, a female bear, at the Karachi Zoo, the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday ordered the zoo administration to hand over the animal to the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board within two days, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Secretary Wildlife and Senior Director Karachi Zoo appeared in the court.

Expressing strong displeasure over the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) administration, Justice Iqbal Kalhoro asked how Rano could be kept in the condition in which she had been kept. “Why don’t you people do your work? Why do you always wait for the court orders?”

Kalhoro expressed the surprise as to why the bear was not shifted to a better place where she could be properly looked after.

Lawyer for the petitioner told the court that Rano had been kept in the same cage for the last seven years. “So much so that now worms have appeared in her head,” he added.

The judge wondered why the animal had been kept in the same cage for the last seven years.

Female chimpanzee dies at Karachi zoo

Also on Tuesday, a female chimpanzee, Bibi, breathed her last at the Karachi zoo after protracted illness. She was 40.

The postmortem of the animal revealed that old age was the factor behind Bibi’s death.

The chimpanzee had been seized from PECHS by the Wildlife Department officials and the police in September 2000.

She had become an attraction for the visitors, especially kids, who would flock to her cage to behold her.

Reporters: Mumtaz Jamali and Aqsa Sheikh