DAILY NEWS & ANALYSIS (Mumbai, India) 09 July 11 Anaconda gets stuck in red tape in Gujarat (Chaitra Devarhubli)
Ahmedabad: It has been over a year since Kankaria zoo authoritiesplanned to bring an anaconda to the city zoo, but the move is yet to see the light of day.
Even as authorities wait for permission from different agencies, the glass enclosure created in the reptile house for one of the world's largest snakes remains eerily devoid of its large South American inhabitant.
Officials of Kankaria zoo told DNA that the zoo had planned to bring four baby anacondas from Sri Lanka and had applied to five bodies seeking permission. But only two of them - the union ministry of environment and forests and the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) - have given the green signal.
There is a CZA provision which says that before endangered species are brought, an enclosure or proper environment should be created. Only after zoo officials of Kankaria built a large separate enclosure for the snake did the CZA grant permission.
However, the director general of foreign trade (DGFT) and even the Gujarat forest department are yet to give a no-objection certificate (NOC) to Kankaria zoo for bringing in the snake. Officials say that though they submitted all the required documents, they are yet to get a response from them.
Besides these, the Convention of International Treaty for Endangered Species (CITES) is also yet to provide permission for the move. CITES is a treaty signed by 119 countries of the world to protect wildlife from over-exploitation.
However, CITES doesn't apply for India. But, as the anacondas will be brought from Sri Lanka, the CITES committee of Sri Lanka will hold a meeting to decide upon the matter.
Anaconda gets stuck in red tape in Gujarat