Somnath Prakalpa Zoo

• Nearly all the enclosures are small and barren and do not have any enrichment.
• No clean water or fresh food could be seen in any of the enclosures.
• All the enclosures are filthy and have cement floors.
• There are no walls enclosing the zoo or signs directing people into the zoo. Many plastic buckets and ladders are strewn throughout the zoo.
• On the day of our investigation, monkeys were chained to the walls and were barely able to move in their small cement enclosures. Other monkeys share a small, cramped structure.
• An individually housed monkey is kept in a trapping cage which is balanced on rocks. No food or water was observed in the cage.
• Blue bulls, female neelgais, dogs and a crocodile are all kept in foul-smelling sheds. Two dogs were chained to the wall and kept on gunny bags without food or water.
• An individually housed blue bull is forced to eat and sleep on a cement floor which is covered with his own faeces.
• A single crocodile has a dirty pool and very little land space.
• A deer and sheep are kept together in a tiny cement cell.
• Two bears had ropes around their snouts which had sticks attached to them. The ropes were tearing into their flesh, and they both appeared to have laboured breathing. No food or water was observed in their cage.
• Leopards are kept next to the bears in a room which is damp and completely empty. One leopard is so lame that he can barely walk.

This monkey is kept in a dilapidated cage with torn mesh, no environmental enrichment and nothing to stimulate his mind.

This is a view of the monkey in his small cage.

This is one of the two dogs kept in the zoo in a small enclosure.

The water pool in the small dirty crocodile enclosure is half-empty.

This bear has a stick attached to the rope in his nose.