Thaindian News

Bhubaneswar, March 31 (IANS) A team of investigators from Orissa is camping at Gurgaon in Haryana to trace a pair of macaws stolen last year from Nandankanan zoo here, an official said Wednesday.
The team comprising two inspectors of crime branch police and an assistant conservator of forests (wild life) is verifying if the stolen macaws are with a circus in that city, S.K. Mohapatra, deputy director of Nandankanan zoo, told IANS.

“They have spotted a few macaws kept by Western circus which look similar to those stolen from our zoo. But the investigators are trying to match them with the photographs that we have given them,” he said.

“The officials have also asked the circus operator to show documents if the macaws belong to them and were obtained legally,” he said.

Nandankanan Zoological Park on the outskirts of state capital Bhubaneswar houses 1,200 reptiles, birds and mammals and 424 species of plants of 87 families.

Two of the zoo’s four macaws, large colourful parrots from South America, were stolen by miscreants in July last year. The government ordered police to launch a probe after two persons arrested in the same month disclosed that they had stolen the rare green-winged macaws from the zoo.