ISLAMABAD, Feb 10: The cage of the Marghazar Zoo meant for lion has been lying vacant since the death of its last inmates some ten years back thanks to the apathy of the Capital Development Authority (CDA).

“At present, the zoo doesn’t have lion,” an official of the zoo said adding this is unfair because a zoo without a lion is incomplete.

According to details gathered by Dawn by 2001 the city had a pair of lions and six cheetahs. “First lioness died and then her aged partner,” he said.

A postmortem was also conducted as per the rules of the zoo and log book was maintained.

When asked about the cheetahs he said: “They were donated to the zoos of Rawalpindi as we were short of facilities. Two of them were given to Jungle Wood Park of the Army while the rest were handed over to the Lohi Behar, Jungle Park Zoo.”

When put a senior official of the environment wing asked as to why the Capital Development Authority had failed to bring in new pair of lions for the city’s zoo?

He on condition of anonymity said: “We did float a tender for the purchase of lion and short-listed a company which agreed to provide a lion for Rs5 million. But later we came to know that the zoo doesn’t have proper facilities for lion.”

He said that the idea to purchase a new pair of lions had been dropped for the time being. He, however, said they would arrange a pair of lions once the construction of new zoo was completed.

The official said the new zoo covering an area of 82 acres including 20 acres of the existing one was to be completed in 2010 but delayed for want of funds.

The estimated cost of the proposed zoo is Rs1,407.80 million as per approved PC-I and will exhibit a wide variety of animals almost more than 200 species, he added.

“We are short of funds otherwise the construction could have been completed as per the plan,” added the official.

The official also maintained that they planned to arrange reptiles for the zoo as well.

Islamabad zoo, according to the environment wing official, has a large number of rare species like the barking deer however, “it is yet to get recognition.”

Meanwhile, the spokesman for the CDA quoting chairman Farkhand Iqbal said: “Once the funds issue is resolved the city will have a modern zoo with a pair of lions and a new entertainment area.”

The spokesman said that chairman Capital Development Authority Farkhand Iqbal was cognizant of the issue.

“A report has already been sought from the member environment for the early completion of the zoo,” the spokesman said, while quoting the chairman.