Jaya Bhattacharya Adopts a Sloth Bear at Lucknow Zoo

We have constantly come across multiple public figures promoting and proposing their idea of love and care for animals. And while this is more so usually about pets and how adoting them is always a better option than else. However, several times, this awareness is also about wildlife but rarely do see adoptions for the same. That has happened in the case of actor Jaya Bhattacharya.

Bhattacharya and some her school mates adopted a sloth bear recently (a vulnerable species) at the Wajid Ali Shah Prani Udyaan (Lucknow Zoo). Calling themselves the batch of '88, they donated a sum of Rs 30,000 for the upkeep and maintenance of the sloth bear for a period of six months.

Speaking about the same to Times of India, Bhattacharya said, “One of my former classmates, Mona Dutta shared a post for adoption of animals at the Lucknow Zoo in our school Whatsapp group. So I floated the idea of us girls coming together to adopt an animal. I also shared the idea with Amrita Oberoi my former classmate. The idea appealed to everyone and we were like whoever can contribute as much as they can, given the pandemic situations, let's get down to it. We kept a minimum and maximum limit for the contribution as well. The minimum being Rs 1000 and maximum, Rs 2000, so that it didn’t pinch anybody’s pockets. So, a couple of more classmates, settled abroad, also joined in.” Then the question came of which animal to adopt. So the girls sourced the list of animals needing adoption and selected the sloth bear, also an endangered species, to adopt.

“Finally last week, Ritu Trivedi, who works for the CBRI, went to the Lucknow Zoo to collect the adoption certificate and hand over the cheque to the zoo authorities, and that’s how we made it work. This is our way of motivating people across to give back to the society,” added Bhattacharya.

She concluded saying, “I’m sure each child must have visited the zoo at some point of time in life. Each one of us has gone their on school picnics, with family and with friends. So, when anything in Lucknow calls out for help, together we can do loads of things. It is just that somebody has to stand up, gather up and start working. There are more animals at the Lucknow Zoo that need contribution from us.”