Sambalpur: 24-Year Delay; Second Nandankanan Zoo in Lakhmidungri Remains a Mere Promise

Sambalpur: It’s been 24 years since the Odisha government announced plans for a second Nandankanan Zoo in Sambalpur, but the announcement remains just that.

Back in 2000, just after the Naveen Patnaik government took governance, they announced that this massive zoo would be built on the Lakhmidungri hills and the adjacent forest area between Sambalpur and Burla. But even today, not an inch of progress has been made on actually building the zoo.

This delay has indirectly stalled the development of tourism and job opportunities that would have come with the new zoo. For over two decades now, the project has been stuck just on deciding the location.

In September 2000, the then Forest and Environment Minister announced the second Nandankanan plan for Sambalpur in the Assembly. That year, a tiger died during transportation to Gujarat. Following this incident, the government decided to build a new zoo in Sambalpur.

They identified around 100 acres on Lakhmidungri hill and adjoining forest on the Hirakud road connecting the two cities as the proposed site. They were supposed to immediately send a proposal to the Central Zoo Authority for approval.

However, no real action happened for over a decade. In June 2011, the new Forest Minister Debiprasad Mishra repeated the old announcement about getting Central Zoo Authority permission by October of that year. But again, nothing moved forward.

In 2013, the Lakhmidungri site was abandoned because it was concerned that pollution from surrounding hirakud mines and power facilities might harm wildlife.

Later, in 2014, after becoming MLA, Dr. Raseswari Panigrahi revived the issue in the Assembly, proposing an alternative location for the zoo in Chandlidungri, near Nildungri in the Padiabahal area. The government seemed interested in this new proposed site.

However, due to political and administrative instability over the years, the fate of this massive project still remains uncertain even after 24 years of delays and changing locations.