The forest department and the West Bengal Zoo Authority (WBZA) have approved a lion, hippopotamus and sloth bear safari at Bengal Safari: North Bengal Wild Animal Park in Siliguri.

According to park officials, authorities have given their nod based on the “modified management plan” of the park.

At the same time, footfall in the park has gone up in recent days, it is learnt. The park, which spreads over 297 hectares of land, houses animals and birds native to the region. However, of late, exotic animals that have been rescued while being smuggled-four monkeys and one kangaroo have also become a major draw for visitors in the past few months.

“The WBZA and chief wildlife warden of the state forest department have given their consent for the lion, hippopotamus and sloth bear safari, as we have made preparations as per the modified management plan. The online process to get the nod from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) is on,” said the Director of the park, Dawa Sangmu Sherpa.

The CZA is a statutory body under the ministry of environment, forest and climate change. Sources said the park has adequate space for separate enclosures for the new safaris.

“The herbivore safari covers 90 hectares, but 30 hectares for this are enough. Apart from developing infrastructure with the additional land, we have space available here,” a source at the park said.

Bengal Safari, as the park is popularly called, offers mixed herbivore safari, tiger safari, Asiatic black bar safari, leopard safari, aviary and lesser cat trails. In Bengal, the Alipore Zoo in Kolkata keeps most of the exotic animals.

According to officials, the exotic animals at Bengal Safari have attracted the attention of local visitors and tourists alike.

“There has been a rise in the footfall in the park. In the last financial year-2021-22 (April-March), 1,25000 people had turned up, with revenue earning of Rs 1.76 crore, but this year (April-November) so far, 2.5 lakh people have already visited the park and the earning is Rs 3 crore,” Ms Sherpa said.

She attributed the rise in the footfall to the variety of animals, birds, reptile, and an array of development work carried out at the park.

“We have undertaken a host of activities like giving a facelift to the nature interpretation centre, building the toy train station, introduction of the butterfly park, adventure park, and other addition of new events, while there is a plan for a cactus park and some others,” Ms Sherpa said.

The park authorities have also sent a proposal for a permanent veterinary officer. One veterinary officer, a veterinary assistant and an animal attendant are working there on a casual basis presently.

The authorities have installed a glass wall on the renovated veterinary hospital to facilitate more sunlight for quarantined animals. Among the animals, there are two elephants, 10 tigers, six leopards, five Himalayan black bears, four gharial and four crocodiles.

On the other hand, the male kangaroo, Xavier, has been reintroduced in the enclosure for public viewing.

The authorities had suspended the public display for the joey after its female companion, Alexa, died on 6 December. The park authorities are further planning to conduct a count of the deer in the enclosure.

“According to reports of the previous year, there are around 285 deer in the enclosure. We are planning to carry out a fresh survey,” Ms Sherpa said.

Meanwhile, Ms Sherpa said no deer had recently died in the park, as reported in a section of the media. A sambar died due to natural causes, while a deer became prey to a stray leopard in October. Apart from this, no deer has died in the park recently,” she said.