A sick bear at the mini zoo in Mymensingh's Zainul Abedin park is being taken to Bangabandhu Safari Park in Gazipur, where it will be treated.

Officials of the Wildlife Crime Control Unit from Dhaka went to the zoo on the afternoon of 13 April.

Unit inspector Asim Mallik said that although the sick bear had been seized and left at the mini zoo, it was not getting adequate treatment and needs better care to survive. For that reason, besides the two bears, the other animals held in the zoo's custody will also be taken to the safari park in Gazipur, and better treatment will be arranged for the bear.

Asim Mallik said the zoo authorities will be given a chance to obtain licences for animals such as deer and peacocks for which licences are issued. A case will also be filed against the zoo authorities.

The mini zoo was set up under private management inside the city's Zainul Abedin park around 2013, on land rented from Mymensingh City Corporation.

It was leased from the city corporation for a nominal sum by Selim, brother-in-law of Mahbubur Rahman Dulal, former councillor of Ward 4 and panel mayor 2. Mahbubur Rahman Dulal later took over running it from him. From then on, animals were caged and displayed for ticket sales, and the business was expanded commercially with a restaurant and various rides.

After the fall of the Awami League government they went into hiding, and Mizanur Rahman Mamun, former organising secretary of the BNP in the same ward, took charge of the zoo.

Recently, criticism erupted on social media when a bear's leg began rotting and giving off a stench, and the matter came to the attention of the Wildlife Crime Control Unit in Dhaka.

Finally, last Tuesday afternoon, officials of the unit inspected the zoo and sealed it in the evening. Animals had been held there in breach of the rules, and 27 of the 48 native animals were taken away.

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