Ahmedabad, Nov 6 The Kamala Nehru Zoological Park in Ahmedabad has offered a chance to its residents to adopt wild animals and birds through a scheme.

The scheme "friends of the zoo", was launched last year, and invites the locals to adopt an animal against some money, which is utilized by the zoo authorities to feed the animal.

According to Deputy Superintendent of the zoo, Dr NK Savdhariya, around 37 persons adopted a total of 57 animals at a total cost of Rs. 10, 56, 000 last year. However, only 20 persons have come forward this year, he added.

Reacting to question that the adoptions till date highlights a preference among the adopters for herbivores animals, Dr Savdhariya said: "Every individual has a budget of his own. Not every individual is capable of investing a large sum of money. The cost must be such that the individual is able to bear it. The visitors who come here to adopt birds or animals, mainly belong to the middle class, they are not millionaires."

"That is why they invest keeping their budget in mind. Due to budget restraints, most of the people prefer to adopt birds and it isn't the case that that they have an allergy towards carnivorous animals. They just go by their budget," he added.

Alok Jain, a businessman who has adopted a peacock from the zoo, said that he had adopted the bird, as he believes that every animal has the right to be free.

"They are giving vegetarian food to the peacocks. There are many animals like lion and tigers, but they are taking non-veg intakes. So, we prefer that the bird which we are planning to adopt, must be a vegetarian, as we strongly believe in our principle of to live and let live," Jain said. By Uday Adhvaryu (ANI)