Crores spent, proposals rejected & more | Tale of the Lion-less cage at Mumbai's Byculla Zoo

Today is World Lion Day and we would have loved to write about the king of the jungle and its majestic presence. But today, we bring you the tale of a Lion's absence. We're talking about the Byculla Zoo in Mumbai, which has been waiting for nearly a decade for a new arrival to replace the last African-Asiatic lioness who passed away in 2014.

Over these years, it has been the case of rejected proposals, falling out of exchange programmes, and an expensive cage lying empty.

In 2022, a process was kickstarted to bring in a pair of Lions from Indore and Junagarh, in exchange of Zebras. However, the Zebras were to be brought in from a Zoo in Israel. With Israel not being on the list of 'World Organization for Animal Health', the DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trades) rejected this exchange programme.

A year later, the Byculla Zoo administration also sent proposals to zoos in Hyderabad and Gujarat for two pairs of Lions in exchange for Penguins. The authority, however, received no response and the plan was stalled yet again.

Now, let's come to an even more bizarre aspect of the story. It has been nearly two years since a new Lion enclosure was set up at the Byculla Zoo. And according to the response to an RTI filed by The Young Whistleblowers Foundation, this enclosure (which still has no Lions in it) cost a total of ₹8.25 crore.

We tried contacting the zoo authorities to no avail to seek the latest updates regarding the same, but to no avail. With today being the World Lion Day, we thought it to be the opportune moment to talk about this lingering issue at one of India's oldest zoos.