New Delhi: Come July and all the 62 zoos across the country would be able to share information online with their 'counterparts' across the globe, update information about breeding programmes, research information of the animals in a scientific manner among various other things.
With the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), in the process of signing a membership agreement with the US-based International Species Information System (ISIS), zoos would be able to exchange data.
The ISIS has a worldwide presence with approximately 700 members across all nations.
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A snow leopard in the Darjeeling zoo / Photo credit: Flickr, Zigzaguente
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Speaking to TOI, the member secretary of CZA, B.R. Sharma said: "We are in the process of signing up for membership with the ISIS, an international database, soon after the next technical committee meeting which is scheduled for first week of July. This system would be transferred under the umbrella of Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS) by 2009."
Emphasising how this move would benefit CZA, Sharma said: "It will facilitate international collection and sharing of information about not only animal management but also zoo keeping and its management, apart from providing information about animals of Indian origin in zoos abroad and their environment for zoos and aquarium.
"ISIS is the largest organisation having a huge database including historic data for hundreds of thousands of zoo animals of more than several thousand species."
It would also help the national zoos obtain first hand information about animals in zoos across the world as well make exchange programmes simpler.
"Once members, the zoos would get a specific user id and password to access the online system. It would make the task easier for the members to know the number of species and directly contact their counterparts to facilitate early exchange of the desired animals and reduce paperwork. At present, a lot of time is lost in tracking animals required for exchange," Sharma says.
Source: Times of India
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