Ex-PCCF to head panel to probe giraffe death

Bhubaneswar: The State government today constituted a three-member committee to investigate the death of male giraffe 'Joy' brought from Alipore zoo in Kolkata in Nandankanan yesterday. The committee, which will be headed by former PCCF Saroj Patnaik, has been asked to submit its report within a week.

The postmortem report claimed that male giraffe ‘Joy’ died due to heart stroke. Symptoms of jaundice and anaemia were also found in the body of the animal.

It was brought to Nandankanan from the Alipore zoo in Kolkata on February 24 under animal exchange programme for mating with the lone female giraffe in the city zoo ‘Khusi’. The State zoo had swapped four of its tigers to get the long-necked animal.

Five-year old ‘Joy’, which took birth at the Alipore zoo, was brought here under the supervision of an eight-member expert team headed by Assistant director of Nandankanan Dr Kamal Lochan Purohit.

‘Joy’ had arrived in Nanndankanan zoological park from Kolkata-based Alipore zoo on February 24.