Pune Municipal Corporation established Peshwe Park Zoo at the foothills of Parwati in 1953 where the Peshwe had their private Menagerie. The zoo had been established on a limited land of around 7 acres where the animals used to be housed and displayed to the visitors in concrete cages behind iron bars.
Later after 1992, the zoos had to transform from the meagre menagerie to the scientific wildlife conservation centre. To develop a zoo which will fulfil the objectives of naturalistic animal housing, conservation breeding, wildlife conservation education and research a new site at Katraj having a land area of 130 acres was selected and development work was initiated in 1996. The new zoo was inaugurated on 14th March 1999 and renamed Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park and Wildlife Research Centre.
This beautiful lake having spread over 29 acres of land had been established by Nanasaheb Peshwe in 1750. The purpose to have the lake in conjunction with another lake in Katraj was to supply drinking water to Shaniwarwada and Pune city during the time. The water supply from the lake towards Shaniwarwada was through an underground tunnel, the connectivity of the structure constructed at the time is still maintained. Now the water from this water body is no longer used for drinking purposes.
ABUNDANCE OF FAUNAL BIODIVERSITY IN AND AROUND THE LAKE:
The water body and its surrounding is home to sizable species of migratory and native aquatic birds, native reptiles and mammals which also includes some fish species. The critically endangered species of fish Puntius deccanensis was believed to inhabit the lake in the past.
ECO RESTORATION PLAN OF LAKE:
Pune Municipal Corporation envisages eco-restoration of this lake. It is planned to desilt the complete water body which would help restabilize the aquatic faunal biodiversity. With the complete desilting, the plan is to establish large islands within the lake where native trees and shrubs would be planted to have roosting spaces for the native and migratory birds.
THE SPECIES NATURALLY INHABITING THE LAKE:
BIRDS
BIRDS
Display of Indian and selected exotic wild fauna in naturalistic enclosures.
Conservation breeding of selected Indian endangered wildlife species
Awareness towards wildlife conservation through educational activities
Research pertaining to wildlife behaviour, biology and Health aspects
We envision a world committed to the welfare, conservation and protection of faunal diversity on the earth.
A living centre committed to wildlife conservation through ex-situ breeding, research and education.
We achieve this by
Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park currently being developed on 130 acres of land had been following the initial master plan worked out in 1996. Until 2009 the infrastructure development within the zoo undertaken in accordance to the planning chalked out in the earlier Master plan.
The zoo still had enough empty space to erect new infrastructure for animal housing and for upgrading public amenities. The new Master Plan of zoo for next 20 years development prepared again in lines with the updated guidelines of Central Zoo Authority for zoo master planning.
The new Master Plan of zoo got first approved in 2013 which foresee diversifying animal collection of zoo and modernizing visitor amenities.
However, the earlier animal collection plan had shortcomings in terms of species diversity, also there was a demand from zoo visitors to have exotic fauna in the extant stock. To address the issues with animal composition the animal collection plan and Mater (layout) plan got amended in 2021.
Central Zoo Authority of late revised the policy of composition of animal collection plan and elevated the cap of earlier 10 % of exotic faunal species to 25% of the total population. To get benefited of modified norms the animal collection plan and Master(layout) plan of zoo again got amended which got approval from Central Zoo Authority on 20th July 2023.
The revised animal collection plan proposed to have 150 wild faunal species which has composition of 114 indigenous, mostly from Western Ghat and 36 exotic species representing different countries across the globe.
The major exotic fauna which are part of the amended animal collection plan comprises mammals of African Savanna, New world primates, Primates of Madagascar, Aves and Reptiles from North and South America etc.
Upgrading the public amenities is another objective focused in the zoo Master Plan. The entrance plaza facility is planned at main entrance to ease visitor circulation and hassle-free ticket purchase.
The Wildlife conservation education for the student and nature enthusiast is equally concentrated in the Master Plan. Along the main entrance Interpretation centre complex is proposed to disseminate the scientific knowledge on varied facets pertains to nature and wildlife.
