The Dhaka zoo, which is home over to 300 wildlife animals, is operating with a lone veterinary surgeon, who has no wildlife expertise. Dhaka zoo veterinary surgeon Dr Najmul Huda has studied veterinary sciences and animal husbandry during his university years, learnt a bit about veterinary treatment of wildlife but has no real-life training that could have equipped him to better handle wildlife issues.
Having worked with zoo animals for a long time, he is now somewhat capable of treating ill animals.
The exotic and endangered wildlife in display at the Dhaka Zoo may draw the hearts and admiration of hundreds every year but it does not help mask the fact that a number of these animals have recently died due to the lack of proper care.
According to sources from Dhaka Zoo, a number of animals have died in the last few months due to inadequate infrastructure, grubby cages, lack of veterinary personnel and unscientific enclosures. The animals which have died included lions, monkeys, tigers, elephants, bears, wild zebras, ostriches and snakes.
A few numbers of birds have died recently as well, said Veterinary Surgeon of the zoo Dr Najmul Huda, adding, "It is quite natural for animals to die while being confined in zoo."
A Dhaka Zoo official, wishing to remain anonymous, told the Dhaka Tribune that the zoo procures wild animals worth millions but has not devolved the infrastructure or recruited skilled veterinary personnel to take care of the animals. "The tremendous pressure and burden of work has forced many zoo surgeons to quit their work in the past. Many of them are now working in some other zoos of some middle-eastern countries and receiving much higher salaries," he said.
Dr Najmul Huda said there should be at least four veterinarians to take care of the four different kinds of species "“ herbivores, carnivores, birds and reptiles. "I have to handle so many animals on my own as the zoo only has one sanctioned post of veterinary surgeon." Ideally, there should be a system to collect animals' blood, saliva, urine and stool sample to conduct their pathological test, but there is no easy way to do that, he said.
The ministry concerned could not take measures to train the lone veterinary surgeon after repeated calls.Â
Scientific Officer Dr Md Waliur Rahman said many animals bear lacerations on different parts of their body and taking the opportunity, insects such as houseflies invade the wounds which causes "maggots" to grow. Another source said when an animal becomes critically ill the zoo officials administer sedatives to make it unconscious in order to examine the animal's body more closely.
But many wildlife experts opined that administering sedatives without knowing anything about the animal may be fatal for the animal.
The curator of Dhaka Zoo, Dr Enayetur Rahman, said due to the zoo being a national asset and a recreation centre, employees and officials of need proper training for its maintenance.
The curator, however, said despite having many limitations, efforts are ongoing to keep the zoo animals healthy and safe.