Leipzig

The historical city of Leipzig offers a bouquet of interesting and motivating places to explore. Apart from relishing the great history, visit to this German city would perhaps remain incomplete for an Indian without spending some time at the famous Leipzig zoo.

Hailing from a country —India—where people live close to the nature, visit to the zoo was not actually part of my itinerary when I first landed here. But when I was taking a quick look at a bunch of brochures about the zoo, I was amazed to learn that there was a “Ganesha Mandir” (temple of the most revered and popular God of Hindus, Lord Ganesha), which houses elephants. Like most Hindu Indians, I am a fan of the elephant God, and I always carry a picture of Ganesha (as a charm of good luck!) with me wherever I go. For a moment, I could not believe my eyes. I had to take a second look to digest the fact that there was really a Ganesha temple in the Leipzig zoo. Then, I just had to visit the zoo.

Built in 1996, “Ganesha Mandir” is one of the most modern facilities in the Leipzig zoo. As all elephants are imported from Asian countries, including India, the landscape has been designed to resemble an Asian temple ruin. Presently, the Mandir has six elephants. A big idol of Lord Ganesha has been installed at a place where one can view from the outdoor enclosure of the facility. The sprawling outdoor enclosure has been beautifully designed with cascading waterfalls, big trees and a small pool (but big enough for the huge animals to bathe and play about).

But there was no sign of the largest animal on land. My colleague Ms Kerstin Decker could figure out what was going on in my mind: She gave a smile and said “wait, you will not be disappointed.” Then, she led me to a tunnel designed to look like a cave, which led to an internal enclosure. Here, I saw elephants enjoying a feast of green grass. Internal enclosure is a state-of-the-art facility built specially to protect these tropical animals in the temperate climate of Europe. It is a completely covered enclosure except for an opening for the animals to move in and out. Warm temperature is maintained inside the enclosure and for this, solar panels have been installed on the roof. A pond inside the enclosure contains warm water and appropriate temperature is maintained depending on the local weather, I was told.

Unlike zoos in India where most animals are locked in cages, animals in Leipzig zoo have open enclosures with lots of trees where they can freely wander around as they do in the wild. The zoo houses about 850 species of animals from across the world. This is not all. Leipzig zoo also boosts of unique Gondwanaland, where one can discover the tropical rain forest animals and plant species of three continents—Asia, Africa and South America—all under one roof. The visit to Gondwanaland made me think of how life existed when all three continents were one land mass, some millions and millions of years ago.

Now I strongly feel that animal rights activists opposing the animal exchange programme, especially the exchange of animals from the tropical region to the temperate region and vice versa, should visit the Leipzig zoo. And for all Ganesha fans like me from India, zoo is a must visit place in Leipzig.