Four safaris open at Odisha zoo, visitors get glimpse of melanistic tigers

Bhubaneswar: Four safaris including tiger and lion safaris were opened yesterday after six months on the occasion of holy Ratha Jatra for the visitors at Nandankanan Zoological Park, on city’s outskirts here.

Apart from lion and tiger safaris, the visitors went to the bear and vegan safaris at the zoo.

For the first time, the visitors had the glimpse of melanistic tigers in tiger safari.

Nanadankanan Zoological Park is the only place in the world where visitors could see the melanistic tigers inside the tiger safari, said Nandankanan Deputy Director Jayant Kumar Das.

On reopening day of safaris, Bhubaneswar MP Prasanna Patsani and MLA Priyadrashi Mishra along with Nandankanan officials traveled to the safaris in a bus and saw melanistic tiger Krishna, white tiger Snehashish, lioness Supriya, lion Krish, six bears and hundreds of vegan animals belonging to deer species on premises of the zoo.

Notably, the safaris had remained closed as the tender could not be cleared thrice in the past six months.