Wild project

FOR SOMETHING that has been in the pipeline for so long, the $56 million Emperor Valley Zoo upgrade has turned out to be an incredibly wild beast.

In contrast to the animals caged therein, roaming at large is any sense of this project being part of a coherent vision.

The latest twist came this week.

“The zoo was never consulted on any of this,” said consultant John Seyjagat in an interview published in Sunday Newsday on October 13.

He said while there was always a plan for “an education centre” at the site, which goes as far back as 2008, after the zoo was moved to the Ministry of Agriculture, “the ministry took our plan, made their own interpretation of it and presented it.”

But in two statements issued on the same day, the Zoological Society said Mr Seyjagat had “misrepresented” it.

It disclosed its council had “met in an emergency session to address this unfortunate circumstance” and directed, without irony, all future queries to the ministry.

If the zoo today feels uncomfortable with Mr Seyjagat, a Hummingbird Gold medallist and its former head zookeeper, speaking on its behalf, that was not the case mere weeks ago on September 22.

Back then, it was Mr Seyjagat’s name on a statement in which the society belatedly confirmed, after much speculation, the death of Jack, its red kangaroo who had not been seen for six months. The consultant even apologised on the zoo’s behalf for missing calls and appointments on the issue.

The society acted with urgency this week, but it has shown no haste in replying to questions from this newspaper about a host of issues, from its treatment of Jack to whether the expansion project next to the Royal Botanic Gardens will result in any meaningful improvement to the cramped facilities housing animals.

Minister of Agriculture Kazim Hosein on October 16 suggested that more than $3 million in pending maintenance funding for the zoo will be spent on fixing areas like the lion, monkey and bird enclosures in fiscal 2025.

But that spending might not be enough to convince the more than 30,000 people who have signed a petition calling for the upgrade project to be halted.

Some have also called for the zoo to stop importing exotic animals.

Despite all this, the expansion is, incredibly, expanding.

Budget documents suggest at least three new features have been added: a wine/coffee shop, pond and walk-through aquarium.

Minister of Planning Pennelope Beckles in May said she believed there will be more visitors and this will attract business investment.

But this feral, untamed project, which threatens to devour permanently one of the last green spaces of the capital city and which underlines the need to relocate or close the zoo, attracts mainly dismay.