Bid to save endangered red panda from extinction in Sikkim.

Byline: ANI

Gangtok, Jan 15 (ANI): Sikkim is making efforts to save endangered Red Panda from extinction.

The Himalayan Zoological Park (HZP), Gangtok in collaboration with the State Forest Department has initiated a programme for the conservation and breeding of Red Panda at a natural enclosure in the park.

"Red panda is an endangered species. We are in an initial stage now. We have already set up a small venture-breading centre for Red Panda. Presently, we have six animals, two females and four males. In the conservation breeding programme, we have been successful since 1999 when a male was brought from Darjeeling zoo and a female was brought from Holland," said Gut Lepcha, Additional Director of Forest, HZP.

A newly born Red Panda, born six months back in June at the breeding centre in the HZP, has been identified as a male one.

Presently, there are six red pandas (4 male and 2 female) being incarcerated in an architectural enclosure in the Park.

The State Government has asked the forest department to draft a master plan for the zoo, which also includes the architectural remodeling of the enclosure of Red Panda, various programs for its conservation and breeding.

The State Government is very keen to expand the Red Panda breeding and also to initiate similar program for Snow Leopard and other targeted species for which the ideal sites have been identified.

Red Panda, one of the rare and endangered animal species in the world categorized in Schedule I of Wildlife Protection Act and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is the state animal of Sikkim. By Tanshi Pradhan (ANI)

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