News, Hyderabad: With rains lashing the city from the last few days, the Safari Park at the Nehru Zoological Park (NZP) has been temporarily shut down on Tuesday due to heavy inflows of water coming in from the  Mir Alam tank.

Zoo authorities said the safari was shut down mainly for two reasons. One, free-ranging tigers and lions in the Safari Park might consume the polluted water and the other was to prevent untoward incidents like safari buses getting stuck amidst big cats in the muck.

Continuous rain over the past few days has resulted in the tank filling up to the brim, resulting in polluted water flowing into the Safari Park complex and the small ponds inside.

A zoo official said that polluted water from the Mir Alam Tank entering the zoo premises was a cause of concern even in some animal enclosures, especially primate, and tiger enclosures.

“The moats in animal enclosures are getting filled with the polluted water. We are taking measures like pumping out excess water so that the animals do not drink it and fall sick,” the zoo official said.

Meanwhile, he added that the natural drainage network from the moats would be cleaned up to facilitate the dirty water to flow out. He said the overflow started on Saturday, and the Safari Park was shut down on Sunday. The zoo is closed on Mondays.

“We observed on Tuesday that there was not much change in the level of stagnant water in the Safari Park and decided to shut it down,” he said, adding that it could not be specifically stated when it would re-open.

Zoo curator Shivani Dogra said, “There are several inlets from the Mir Alam Tank which are bringing dirty water into the zoo and creating unhygienic conditions. The water is stagnating. It is harmful to animals from not only from the health point of view but also from  the security aspect. All efforts are being taken to drain out the excess water.”