Hon’ble Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Shri Conrad K Sangma inspects progress of Meghalaya Zoological Park at Umtrew, Ribhoi, Meghalaya

By admin On May 21, 2023

Hon’ble Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Shri Conrad K Sangma today visited the first modern Meghalaya Zoological Park at Umtrew, Ribhoi, to review the progress. The foundation stone laying function of various works of this zoo was done in October, 2019 by the present Hon’ble Chief Minister.

It is anticipated that an increase in the number of tourists who travel to the state, as well as an acceleration in the flow of domestic and international tourists, will occur in the not-too-distant future. Foot traffic from tourists was 12.7 lakh in 2019, and it is anticipated that this number will exceed 15 lakh by the year 2024. Keeping this in mind

Animals to be kept in zoo are the following:

1. Barking deer

2. Sambar deer

3. Hog deer

4. Serow

5. Jackal

6. Fox

7. Himalayan black bear

8. Jungle cat

9. Civet cat

10. Leopard cat

11. Leopard

12. Clouded leopard

13. Hoolock gibbon

14. Stump tailed Macaque

15. Assamese Macaque

This zoo is coming up on approximately, 72 Hectares of land at Umtrew. The total expected cost of project is 35 Crore. Work attuned to approximately 21 Crore has been carried out till date. Main purpose of today’s visit was to assess the progress of ongoing work of State Zoo and to inspect along with Forest Department officials. The first phase work includes — construction of 15 animal’s enclosures, Visitor’s Plaza, Cafeteria, Veterinary Clinic, Feed Store, Main Gate etc.

During the inspection, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Shri Conrad K Sangma, stated, “It has been a very satisfactory visit for me today at the Meghalaya Zoological Park. The infrastructure would be ready for tourists soon. After the concerned clearances provided by Government of India, and Central Zoo Authority, we will open the gates for visitors. We aim to create more tourism facilities such as trekking paths, ropeway, children’s park, interpretation center, within the zoo premises to increase tourist footfall.”

Hon’ble Chief Minister during the inspection, directed officials to complete all remaining works and procedural matters related to recognition of zoo from Central Zoo Authority (CZA) by 30th June 2023. He directed all officials to work tirelessly to make it possible and showed faith in them. He also suggested that the local or private parties shall be engaged to run ancillary activities such as ticketing, Cafeteria, souvenir shop, food stall, vehicle services etc.