Who remembers Sarita the hippopotamus? Trucked into Goa from the Mysore zoo in 2013, she was "accidentally" killed by her mate last year, in their ill-suited enclosure at the Bondla zoo. Now there is one single hippo marooned in the jungle sanctuary, thousands of miles from his natural African habitat. Quite close by is another traumatised and lonely male animal, the Asian elephant Krishna, whose solitary existence dates back to the death of his own mate in 2012. It is heart-rending to view this marvellous but visibly doleful animal, shaking back and forth listlessly, its leg bound by a huge rope. Instead of being an attraction at the state's only zoo, the sight is thoroughly depressing.Until last month, Krishna and Devidas the hippo weren't the only friendless and isolated animals at Bondla. There was also the tigress, Sandhya, whose own mate passed away some months ago. Now she has also been freed from her misery. This should have been regarded as a golden opportunity for the forest department authorities to rethink the obsolete mission of their flagship showcase, and to reorient to the twenty-first century cutting edge of animal rehabilitation facilities, eco-parks, and wildlife education centres focused on native biodiversity. Instead, with a conspicuous display of lack of vision, they are looking directly backwards with a misguided plan to import another pair of tigers.Goa's forest department is one of the rare consistently bright spots in the state administration, but its treatment of Bondla is hopelessly stuck in the 19th century paradigm of "zoological gardens". This is a national failing, with Indian facilities like Mumbai's Jijamata Udayan zoo routinely topping lists of the very worst in the world, on multiple parameters. Factoring in the lack of awareness and appalling behaviour of most Indian zoo visitors, the usual result is a toxic, stressful environment and functional death sentence for countless unfortunate animals and birds. The only question is how painful and pointless their end will be.It should not have to be that way in Goa. The woebegone remnants of the state zoo survive right adjacent to the superb forests and extraordinary biodiversity of Bondla wildlife sanctuary, where leopards, bison, deer and at least 100 different varieties of birds flourish in abundance. India's smallest state has ringfenced most of its 600 square kilometres of the spectacular Western Ghats biosphere, as part of 20% of its landmass that is legally protected from development. All this is home to an astonishing bounty: 450 bird species (one-third of the total identified across the entire subcontinent), at least 30 species of snakes, endless species of butterflies (including the two largest varieties seen in India), and a healthy cohort of megafauna including tigers.To better understand, champion and preserve this incredible bonanza, it is imperative that Bondla's infrastructure be liberated from the forest department's current, crude 19th century way of thinking, in order to become the environmental education and learning centre Goa desperately needs to educate its own people about the fast-disappearing natural wealth surrounding them. Even with the tigers and hippos, the zoo never drew much more than 1,00,000 visitors per annum, a dismal fraction of the state tourism marketplace of multiple millions. A skilfully executed environmental information centre would immediately become a much more significant draw, and earn the state richly deserved plaudits.Besides all these practical and sound economic reasons for state authorities to immediately reconsider the way Bondla functions, there is also a strong ethical argument that old-fashioned zoos have no place in the contemporary world.The advocacy group, 'People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' (PETA) has succinctly articulated this case. Their position paper entitled, 'Zoos: Pitiful Prisons' states, "Even under the best of circumstances at the best of zoos, captivity cannot begin to replicate wild animals' habitats. Animals are often prevented from doing most of the things that are natural and important to them, like running, roaming, flying, climbing, foraging, choosing a partner, and being with others of their own kind. Zoos teach people that it is acceptable to interfere with animals and keep them locked up in captivity, where they are bored, cramped, lonely, deprived of all control over their lives, and far from their natural homes...With informative television programming, educational opportunities on the Internet, and the relative ease of international travel, learning about or viewing animals in their natural habitats can be as simple as a flick of a switch or a hike up a mountain. The idea of keeping animals confined behind cage bars is obsolete."(The writer is a photographer and widely published journalist. Views are personal)

Stay updated with all the Latest Goa headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.