Hyderabad: Software professional adopts leopard, turtle

Bahadurpura: As a part of animal adoption programme, Nishanth Maddakuri, a software professional, and Swapna, have shown a kind gesture by adopting a leopard and an Aldabra giant tortoise for one year at Nehru Zoological Park, here, on Friday to celebrate his birthday in a unique manner.

An amount of Rs 1.5 lakh has been transferred into the zoo account. They were taken round the zoo and briefed about the wild animals, their longevity and breeding behaviour.

Zoo Curator V V L Subhadra Devi acknowledged with gratitude and thanked Maddakuri and Swapna for the adoption.

Maddukuri said, "He was impressed with the way that the wild animals were being taken care of in the zoo through a proper schedule and following all guidelines of conservation and breeding in captivity." He congratulated the curator and her team for educating visitors and giving them an opportunity to contribute towards wildlife conservation.