A visit to the Mysuru zoo by Minister for Cooperation S.T. Somashekar on Wednesday to inspect the bio-safety measures taken against the spread of COVID-19 to the animals resulted in him adopting an elephant and sponsoring one day’s expenditure of feeding meat to 16 tigers.

Mr. Somashekar, also the Minister in-charge of Mysuru district, went to the zoo with a team of officials to witness how the zoo management had taken the containment steps in the wake of reports of infection spreading to even the captive animals.

While touring the sprawling campus, he came across the notice about the animal adoption scheme, which is hugely popular among wildlife enthusiasts and animal lovers. He immediately decided to adopt an animal in his personal capacity.

He adopted Chamundi, a five-year-old female jumbo. The adoption costs ₹1.75 lakh for a period of one year (April 22, 2020 to April 21, 2021).

Zoo Executive Director Ajit Kulkarni presented the adoption certificate to the Minister.

The Minister also bore one-day’s feeding cost of 16 tigers which is about ₹25,000. S.A. Ramdas, MLA, and Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar were present.