Feeling the heat

with the mercury already soaring high, there are unusual customers for desert cooler. To kill the heat, desert coolers fans and exhaust fans will be installed in cages housing monkeys and exotic birds in Delhi's National Zoological Park.

The zoo staff is busy roofing the cages of these inmates with 'agronet'. "This is a kind of net that is capable of blocking 60 per cent of the heat, and the free passage of air is not blocked in any way," said B R Sharma, director of the Zoological Park.

The zoo authorities are also making some improvement in the cages, like increasing the distance of the fence to make the inmates comfortable.

At present, there are 1,217 animals of different species in the Delhi Zoo as compared to 1,129 last year. The most recent adition to the zoo is a giraffe from the Calcutta Zoo. Two jaguars from Sri Lanka and two baby elephants from Zimbabwe have also been brought in to attract the visitors, said a zoo official.

"There is also a significant decline in the mortality of the animals, which has come down from 11 per cent last year to 8 per cent this year. Most of the animals had died a natural death," said Sharma.