What does it take for a butterfly, a bird or a wild animal to thrive beyond the boundaries of a zoo? This is the question that Wildlife Week at Indira Gandhi Zoological Park seeks to explore through a series of competitions, workshops and conservation activities from October 2 to 8.
The week will also use speech, art and performance to introduce different aspects of conservation. Participants will have three to five minutes to present their speeches, with the organisers encouraging the use of facts, examples and original ideas. The following day, the zoo will turn its attention to conservation education and outreach. A session introducing participants to Indira Gandhi Zoological Park and wildlife management will be followed by a quiz competition. Butterflies flutter through the Butterfly Park at the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park in Visakhapatnam. The park’s lush vegetation and host plants provide a thriving habitat for a variety of butterfly species and other pollinators. | Photo Credit: KR Deepak
An elocution competition on October 3 will invite participants from class 1 to postgraduate level to speak on either the role of zoos in wildlife conservation or wildlife and tribal communities. On October 6, participants will take up wildlife-human coexistence, examining the challenges that arise when people and wild animals share landscapes and considering possible solutions. The poster presentation competition, open to participants aged seven to 22, will give them two minutes to explain their ideas and key messages.
The zoo already uses its butterfly park as a conservation education space. Around 30 butterfly species can be observed in the garden, while more than 120 species have been recorded across the zoo premises.
The park has endemic host and nectar plants that attract butterflies to feed and breed, according to the zoo curator G Mangamma.
