Siliguri Metropolitan Police will take certain initiatives for the safety of thousands of visitors who go to the Bengal Safari Park located on the outskirts of Siliguri.
C. Sudhakar, the commissioner of Siliguri Metropolitan Police, said on Tuesday, the animal habitat’s 10th foundation day, that they had decided to set up a police outpost at the park.
“The park is spread over a large area and the average turnout of visitors at the park is around four lakh per year. Considering such a steady footfall of people here, we will have proposed to the park authorities to open a police outpost here. Also, we will introduce bike patrolling to provide more security to the people visiting the park,”
said Sudhakar.
The Bengal Safari Park in Siliguri. File image
He pointed out that as the park was spread over 297 hectares, patrolling on bikes was more effective than patrolling in four-wheelers.
“The patrolling will be conducted jointly with forest guards. We will draw up modalities with forest officials and introduce patrolling soon,” the commissioner added.
Vijay Kumar E., the director of the zoological park, said the habitat had a total of 854 animals of 61 different species. Out of these, 34 are endangered species.
“The park was started with only the tiger safari, with an average of 60,000 visitors every year. But within a decade, there has been a significant growth in the number of visitors. In recent years, around 3.5 lakh to 4 lakh people have visited the park. The surge of visitors has also led to an annual revenue of around ₹10 crore,” he said.
The open-air zoological park, also known as the North Bengal Wild Animals Park, is the only of its kind in the region.
It has 11 royal Bengal tigers, a Himalayan black bear, separate primate enclosures, an open-air aviary, leopards, gharials (fish-eating crocodiles), and a nature
interpretation centre.
“There are proposals to introduce some new animals at the park. The infrastructure work to introduce the lion safari is in progress and we will start it soon,” said the director.
