Somnath Prakalpa Zoo

Chandrapur, Maharashtra
July 2005

• Nearly all the enclosures were small and barren and had no enrichment.
• No clean water or fresh food could be seen in any of the enclosures.
• All the enclosures were filthy and had cement floors.
• There were no walls enclosing the zoo or signs directing people into the zoo. Many plastic buckets and ladders were strewn throughout the zoo.
• On the day of our investigation, some of the monkeys were chained to walls, barely able to move in the small cement enclosures. Other monkeys shared a small, cramped structure.

• A monkey was kept alone in a trapping cage that was balanced on rocks. No food or water was observed in the cage.
• Blue bulls, female neelgais, dogs and a crocodile were all kept in foul-smelling sheds. Two dogs were chained to a wall and kept on gunny bags without food or water.
• An individually housed blue bull had to eat and sleep on a cement floor which was covered in his own faeces.
• The enclosure for a lone crocodile had a dirty pool and very little land space.
• A deer and sheep were kept together in a small cement cell.
• Two bears had ropes tied around their snouts which had sticks attached to them. The ropes were tearing into their flesh, and they both appeared to have laboured breathing. No food or water was observed in the cage.
• Leopards were kept next to the bears in a room which was damp and completely empty. One leopard was so weak that he could barely walk.

This monkey is kept in a dilapidated cage with torn mesh, no environmental enrichment and nothing to stimulate his mind.

This is a view of the monkey in his small cage.

This is one of the two dogs kept in the zoo in a small enclosure.

The water pool in the small dirty crocodile enclosure is half-empty.

This bear has a stick attached to the rope in his nose.