Adopt a cobra for ₹2,000, an elephant for ₹1.75 lakh
Bengaluru’s Bannerghatta Biological Park offers animals for adoption for a year
Would you like to adopt an Indian cobra for as low as ₹2,000 per annum or an Asiatic elephant ₹1.75 lakh? Bengaluru’s Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) has a new programme for people with an interest in conserving wildlife by adopting animals at the zoo.
“The animal adoption programme is an opportunity for you to get involved with supporting feed and veterinary care expenses for zoo animals with provision for Income Tax rebate under Section 80G. There are 21 elephants that can be adopted online,”
said zoo officials. The BBP has released a list of animals that can be adopted. The zoo, which sees an annual footfall of around 15 lakh persons, has been closed since the middle of March following the lockdown declared in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic. It received a record 23,000 people on a single day on January 1 this year. The animal adoption initiative is part of the BBPs outreach programme as people are not able to visit the zoo due to the lockdown. In other times, visitors to the zoo can sign up to adopt animals, Ms. Singh said.
Kashmir saffron gets GI tag
The aromatic spice possesses medicinal properties
Kashmir saffron, which is cultivated and harvested in the Karewa (highlands) of Jammu and Kashmir, has been given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Geographical Indications Registry.
The spice is grown in some regions of Kashmir, including Pulwama, Budgam, Kishtwar and Srinagar.
The application was filed by the Directorate of Agriculture, Government of Jammu and Kashmir, and facilitated by the ShereKashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology, Kashmir, and Saffron Research Station, Dussu (Pampore).
‘Very precious’
Chinnaraja G. Naidu, Deputy Registrar of Geographical Indications, said, “Kashmir saffron is a very precious and costly product. Iran is the largest producer of saffron and India is a close competitor.
With the GI tag, Kashmir saffron would gain more prominence in the export market,” he added. Kashmir saffron is renowned globally as a spice. It rejuvenates health and is used in cosmetics and for medicinal purposes. It has been associated with traditional Kashmiri cuisine and represents the rich cultural heritage of the region.
The unique characteristics of Kashmir saffron are its longer and thicker stigmas, natural deepred colour, high aroma, bitter flavour, chemicalfree processing, and high quantity of crocin (colouring strength), safranal (flavour) and picrocrocin (bitterness). It is the only saffron in the world grown at an altitude of 1,600 m to 1,800 m AMSL (above mean sea level).
The saffron available in Kashmir is of three types —
‘Lachha Saffron’, with stigmas just separated from the flowers and dried without further processing;
‘Mongra Saffron’, in which stigmas are detached from the flower, dried in the sun and processed traditionally; and
‘Guchhi Saffron’, which is the same as Lachha, except that the latter’s dried stigmas are packed loosely in airtight containers while the former has stigmas joined together in a bundle tied with a cloth thread.
