KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ visited the Central Zoo in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur on Monday noon.

PM Dahal, who reached the Zoo at around 2:00 pm, spent around an hour in the enclosure that is home to 1,068 animals of 110 species. Dahal took great interest in observing tiger and elephant and fed the mammoth as well, shared Rachana Shah, manager of the Zoo.

PM Dahal recalled his visit to the Zoo 30 years ago and remarked that the Zoo had become more attractive and worthy to take a tour after the management of the Zoo was handed over to the National Trust for Nature Conservation, said Shah, quoting the PM as saying.

The Central Zoo, with an area of about 6 hectare, shelters 33 species of mammals, 61 species of birds, 8 types of amphibians and 17 types of fishes. Among the 38 species of endangered wild animals in Nepal, the Zoo has been conserving 15 at present.

Established in 1932 by erstwhile Prime Minister Juddha Shumsher Rana as a private zoo, the Central Zoo was later opened for public in the 1950s.