Gazipur Safari Park, rich in biodiversity, is steadily losing its lustre. Where large crowds once gathered, visitors can now be counted on one hand. The public blames mismanagement, neglect of the animals and a lack of proper supervision.

The park has been an ideal place for families from Dhaka and nearby areas to spend a day out. But for want of maintenance and management, many structures have been damaged and animals of various species have died or fallen ill. Visitor numbers are falling day by day, and the park is now in a sorry state.

The park stands at Indrapur in Mawna union of Sreepur upazila, Gazipur, on 3,819 acres of a 4,909-acre site of small hillocks and sal forest. Modelled on Safari World in Thailand, it opened in 2013. Its main attraction is the Core Safari. The park is divided into five parts: the Square, the Core Safari Park, the Biodiversity Park, Safari Kingdom and the Extensive Asian Safari Park.

On 5 August, during the student-led mass uprising, the park was widely vandalised and looted. The main gate, a mural, the animal museum, the aviary, the park office and several food stalls were smashed. Goods from the food stalls, electric motors, CCTV cameras, chairs, tables and other equipment were looted. Rest-house windows and two jeeps used for monitoring were also broken. The park reopened to visitors three months and nine days later.

Inquiries found that as animals keep dying, revenue is also being evaded. Through mismanagement and neglect, animals have died one after another; inside, the park is dirty, the grass is overgrown and creepers wound around the gajari trees have left it dark. On 16 January this year a nilgai escaped over the park wall; another nilgai had escaped in 2021. A lion and a wildebeest died on 27 December 2021. In January and February 2022, 11 zebras, a tiger and a lion died.

A giraffe died on 20 October 2023. The Core Safari has had no kangaroos since three died in 2021. The lakes, once full of black and white swans, now have none.

On the ground, the park, which is supposed to hold more than a hundred species, does not. It currently has one giraffe, 42 zebras, 11 wildebeest, seven tigers, four lions, 22 bears, more than 200 deer, 11 gayal, nine nilgai, five sambar deer, three common eland and 15 barking deer, along with elephants, horses, macaws, peacocks, mynas, vultures, hornbills, adjutant storks, pelicans and several other species of animals, birds and reptiles. Many attractions, including the children's park, are shut altogether.

In the Core Safari, visitors ride special buses along a four-kilometre road to see tigers, lions, bears and various African animals. Three kilometres of that road are now full of mud, water and potholes. The road has subsided in places, leaving pits and deep ruts, and the buses carry visitors at risk. People come to the park mainly to see these animals or to show them to their children, but they are leaving disappointed.

A park employee, speaking on condition of anonymity, said irregularities and mismanagement had gone on for a long time. Several of the park's projects had been leased out before, and the lessees have been absconding since the fall of the government. When groups of a hundred or more people from schools, colleges and other institutions arrive at the entrance, tickets are cut for 30 to 40 of them and the money for the rest cannot be traced.

A class of touts posing as guides also operates in collusion with security staff, ticket sellers and forest staff, making deals to show visitors around the attractions. Apart from the entry fee, visitors must buy a separate ticket per head for each attraction. The touts strike deals to show nine attractions for Tk 400 and take people inside, although visiting those nine places would otherwise cost each visitor about Tk 800.

Rafiqul Islam, visiting from Dhaka with his family, said many things in the park were lying abandoned, there was no food in the deer enclosure and the horse had wasted away. "It is clear that those in charge are neglecting the animals' health," he said, adding that there was nowhere for visitors to sit and the walkways were poor.

Visitor Ramjan Hossain said people came to enjoy a beautiful environment, but every animal looked unkempt, not kept as it should be. "Inside I saw only one tiger, and it was thin. There are many cages but no birds," he said. Entry costs Tk 50 and then a ticket has to be bought again for every attraction, "but there is not enough here to be enchanted by".

Abul Kalam, who runs a rice eatery outside the park gate, said hardly any visitors come now. Some people come only on Fridays, and on other days he sometimes has to close his shop.

Rafiqul Islam, the forest department's assistant conservator of forests (ACF) in charge, said some repairs had been carried out and the park was open regularly on the instructions of higher authorities. Leasing of the main gate and other parts of the park is under way, and until that is finalised the park will be run under government management. "Various animals and birds are breeding in the park's favourable environment. We are trying. The higher authorities are aware of the park's problems," he said.

Sharmin Akter, divisional forest officer (DFO) for Dhaka in the Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Division, said the officer responsible had been asked for information on the park's road. Once it is received, tenders will be invited and the road repaired quickly.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.