Officials at the BBP take measures to battle the heat

BENGALURU: At the Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP), every day during noon and at 3 PM a water tanker is equipped with a motor pump which moves around, sprinkling water up to a height of 30ft by making it possible for the water to reach every corner of animal and bird enclosures.

This exercise, is being conducted to keep the zoo inmates cool as the temperature in the area is around 37 degrees Celsius.

Sanjay Bijoor, the executive director, Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP), told a source that, "Around 6,000 litres of water is being sprinkled on animals every day at the zoo, which houses about 50 big cages apart from small ones for birds and other animals. All mammals, especially leopards, elephants and deer, require this as temperatures have been soaring. Spraying of water also helps keep the humidity intact in the enclosures. Apart from this, small ponds inside the enclosures are filled with enough water. While most areas where visitors roam have tree cover, there are a few open spaces."

The management of the BBP is preparing for the harsh summer by working on its water budgeting. "Right now, we are able to manage water needs of the park with the available resources, including borewells and tanks in the safari area. We are digging more borewells to ensure there's no problem in the coming months when we're likely to face a shortage," said an official.

According to the officials, it's the hippopotamus enclosure which requires the most amount of water. "For every three days, hippos require 25,000 litres of water. We have repaired a pipeline that used to supply water from a tank in the safari area to a tank in the hippopotamus enclosure," said the official.

High water content items such as - muskmelons, watermelons, cucumbers and oranges - have been added by the officials to the diet of herbivorous animals.