Translation error changes buffalo meat to beef in ad, lands Byculla zoo in soup

In a major goof up, a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) advertisement inviting tenders to provide meat for animals of Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan & Zoo in Byculla accidentally mentioned cow meat instead of buffalo meat. The error led to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manoj Kotak writing to the civic chief to take action against the person responsible.

Zoo officials, however, clarified that they have been procuring buffalo meat for the animals and that the advertisement was wrongly printed.

A BMC tender invitation notice was put out in a few regional newspapers on October 9 inviting tenders to supply buffalo meat for the animals in the Byculla zoo. As per the tender, 12-15 kgs of meat will have to be supplied to the Byculla zoo for the carnivorous animals.

In his letter to the Civic Chief Ajoy Mehta, Kotak wrote, “Supply of cow meat for the animals in the zoo is against the Central and state law of 2015 on the beef ban. The law bans possession of meat of the cow and its slaughter too. The BMC must investigate as to who is responsible for this tender and if it is an error then the concerned officer should be punished.”

Clarifying the controversy, Sanjay Tripathi, director of the Byculla Zoo said, “There has been a mistake in the translation as the tender was to supply buffalo meat and not cow beef. A few Hindi and Gujarati newspapers have translated it incorrectly but the ad has come out correct in Marathi papers. Buffalo meat is allowed under the Act and we have been procuring it for years now for our carnivorous animals.

“The meat comes from the Deonar abattoir. As of now, we need very less quantity as we have only one hyena which mostly feeds on chicken. However, we have prepared the tender keeping in mind our future needs when more animals would be added to the zoo during its expansion.”