The Lahore Zoo serves as a recreational and educational hub for its visitors. However, the animals within it are adversely affected by captivity which has impacted their mental and physical health greatly over the past few years. Where zoos across the globe are exchanging hard architecture for more naturalistic surroundings to calm the animals, Lahore Zoo has faced delays in matching this advancement. The Hamoodur Rahman Foundation has worked in collaboration with the Lahore Zoo to combat this issue. 

HRF’s projects at the Zoo are geared towards enriching experiences for the animals as well as visitors. With this aim, the foundation has made three interventions at the Zoo: Renovation of the Bird Aviary, Habitat Enrichment for Big Mammals and an animal kindness campaign on the Lahore Zoo’s outer walls.

In the first phase of this project, HRF has built a pond and waterfall in the bird aviary to provide a running source of water for the birds. HRF has provided the necessary funds for this activity and the Zoo has provided labour and expertise to fulfil the needs of this project.

Upon its completion, we moved towards repainting the animal houses and big mammal exhibits. For this purpose, three sections of the main building were identified and paintwork has taken place within them.

For its third intervention at the Lahore Zoo, HRF’s team leader in Lahore gathered student-artists from the city and painted a series of emotive murals on the Zoo’s outer wall, highlighting the significance of kindness and empathy towards animals. These murals can now be visited on the ever-bustling Lawrence Road where there is a steady audience of pedestrians and vehicles being informed by their messages.

The Hamoodur Rahman Foundation continues its support of the Lahore Zoo and is open to future projects within it that can contribute to animal and visitor welfare. We look forward to more collaboration with the team at Lahore Zoo and other animal sanctuaries across the country.