Mangaluru: Pilikula Biological Park held a “Wildlife Week 2015” celebration with the theme of “Nature and Wildlife”, at the park premises, Vamanjoor here on October 4.
The inaugural ceremony was held with a drawing competition. Participating children along with Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim inaugurated the drawing competition with paintings.
Director of Pilikula Biological Park, Jayaprakash Bhandary said, “To bring awareness among the children about the animals, we have organized a drawing competition for the lower primary, higher primary, high school and college students. During the British era, there was no strict law; killing animals was considered as a game. In the big game, if you paid Rs 50, you were allowed to kill elephants; even with Rs 40, you could kill tigers. Tigers were hunted on foot, horseback and on the elephant-back. All of these involved considerable danger and the hunting of a tiger had been considered a manly and courageous feat with game trophies being collected as symbols of valor and prestige. In some places such as China, tigers were also perceived to be a threat to human life. So those who managed to kill them were hailed as heroes by the general public.”
He further said that later, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 was strictly implemented. Pilikula Biological park has 400 acres of green, woody land renamed as reserve forest to shelter some of the wild animals such as the tigers, lions, wild boars, snakes, frogs, birds, peacocks, hens and other species.
He also said that in the afternoon, there would be a Dog, Cat and Cock show. He also remarked at the good response from the school children for the drawing, essay and quiz competitions.
Deputy commissioner A B Ibrahim, Executive director S A Prabhakar Sharma, PilikulaRegional Science Director Dr K V Rao, Ganesh Somayaji and others were also present.
