RAJSHAHI, Feb 1: People usually go to park to get refreshed amid natural environment and to zoo for coming close to different wild animals like tiger, lion, bear, deer and others.
But, Shaheed AHM Kamaruzzaman central park and zoo in Rajshahi has none of those animals but only garbage is dumped here and there which makes people turn away from the park.
People also expressed their frustration about the garbage and demanded of the authority to take immediate action in this connection.
While visiting the park recently, big grass was found here and there, and on the very left side of the central gate, garbage including plastic bottle, food scraps, and packets were found. Though there are some sitting arrangements at the park, but people couldn't sit because of bad smell coming out of the garbage. Besides, many trees were found uprooted all over the park.
Mariful Islam, a visitor from Pabna, expressing his frustration, said, "We hoped the zoo will be very rich, and the total environment of the park will be enjoyable, but we found garbage and faced bad smell, and a zoo without animal, which has proved that the authority is not paying attention to keep the park attractive."
Shaikh Abu Jafor, monitoring officer of the park and zoo, said, "The trees were uprooted during storms several times. Those will be sold through auction soon."
"The cleaning workers gather up the garbage from different areas of the park and throw it to the city dustbins every day," Abu Jafor also claimed.
Among the wild animals, there were dove, horse, deer, bear, otter, monkey, rabbit, pelican, egret, ass, crocodile, turtle and python at the zoo. Big animals like lion, tiger and giraffe are not available there for the last couple of years.
The zoo workers said, "A six and a half year old tiger was brought to the zoo in 1997, while after passing 12 years, he died in 2008. A new cage for tigers was made last year but still there is no tiger. A pair of lion was also at the zoo couple of years back, but the lioness passed away in 2013, and after some months, the lion also passed away."
Zannatul Ferdaus, a guardian who came to the zoo with her kids, said that her children just wanted to see tiger, lion and giraffe, but most of the cages were empty.
Farhad Uddin, curator of the zoo, said, "We don't have any plan to bring any tiger or lion soon but we demanded a giraffe from the authority of Bangabandhu Safari Park recently, and are hoping to get that soon. Besides, we are thinking to bring some new animals."
If necessary steps are not taken immediately, the visitors will turn away from the park. To bring back the visitors, the authority would take steps immediately, the local people hoped.
