<i>Zoo animals suffer in the heat </i>

A tiger at Dhaka Zoo tries to cool down in less than a foot-deep water of an artificial canal at Shed-21 as temperature was high yesterday. The water lacks adequate depth for the tiger and is littered with garbage.Photo: Anisur Rahman

As city dwellers struggle to keep the heat out, the four-legged inhabitants of the zoo are also finding it difficult to keep cool in the sweltering weather.
No extra care is available for the captive animals of the zoo in this heat, making many of them weaker.
Water in the artificial canals in sheds C-21 and C-22 -- the semi-natural sheds made for tigers -- is less than a foot deep, making it almost impossible for the tigers to take a dip in it to seek some solace from the heat.
A tiger was seen yesterday trying in vain to take a dip in this dirty, greenish water on which floated a plastic bottle, a cigarette pack, an empty foil pack -- to name some of the rubbish discarded by visitors to the zoo.
Tigers in other cages don't have any canals but only water tubs to drink water from.
An official of the zoo explained that the water in the canal is changed once every six months, and hence the pile of rubbish in it.
Deputy Curator of the zoo, Dr AKM Nazrul Islam, said a single employee is assigned to take care of five to six sheds a day, so it is not possible to keep them prim and proper.
"Forty posts of the zoo employees remain vacant," he pointed out.
Meanwhile, terming the situation as a mild heat wave, the met office said yesterday that the current situation would prevail for one or two more days.
The mercury rose to 39.8 degrees Celsius yesterday, the highest rise so far this season. Regular load shedding, several times a day in most places in the city, has worsened the overall situation for city dwellers.
The temperature in the capital was 36.6 degrees Celsius yesterday while the highest temperature in the country was recorded in Rajshahi at 39.9 degrees Celsius.