IT for Efficiency

Platform for zoo management

The Central Zoo Authority oversees the management of zoos in India and provides them necessary technical and financial inputs. Only such zoos are to be allowed to operate that are recognised and maintain animals in accordance with the norms and standards prescribed by the Zoo Authority. It also has a number of other roles which require a lot of coordination among the zoos in India as well as abroad. It is also responsible for research and people management. For better zoo and animal management, the Central Zoo Authority designed the website, http://cza.nic.in.

The site contains inventory data and other relevant information of all the zoos under the Central Zoo Authority. It also provides information to the public about the zoos in India and the laws governing them. As the popularity of this website increased, more zoos started using this platform which introduced shortcomings in the system. To overcome this, a new web-based MIS system will soon be implemented.

To effectively discharge its functions, which spans over a vast country like India, a need for a common platform was felt through which zoos in the country could exchange data among themselves for better zoo and animal management. With an increase in the popularity of the website, the system faced several shortcoming, these included slow rate of data upload and download, the static nature of the site, and the data on the site was not in sync with the data available with the Central Zoo Authority.

Thus, as the internet is the most robust and least expensive of mediums for this kind of a wide area network, the website is expected to be able to meet the needs of the changing environment.

Process
The website was developed using the ASP technology at the front end and SQL Server
at the backend, both selected for their tight integration and easily expandable nature. Next came the need to upgrade the website to make it more user-friendly and efficient. Thus it was decided to implement a web-based Management Information System (MIS) to overcome all the shortcomings of the current website. The new .NET-based solution is currently being developed and will be deployed soon.

Impact
The solution provided brought together the inventory data and other information of all the zoos in a single repository. There are currently 169 recognised zoos in the country.
The solution has enabled user-friendly online data updation. It facilitates sharing of information about not only animal management but also zoo keeping and its management. This has resulted in better zoo and animal management.