Named after the `garden of gods', Nandankanan paints a picture of a ruined garden. The cyclone that hit the State on October 29 has left a trail of devastation in the famous biological park and zoo. All that is left are hundreds of massive uprooted trees, damaged enclosures and desperate animals inside them trying to reconcile with what happened a few days ago.Though not many animals died in the cyclone, the rich flora bore the brunt. As per official reports, one old lioness, two rare hornbills, about eight spotted deer and a few monkeys died. Officials said that, apart from these animals and birds, a number of small rare birds also died out of panic inside the enclosures.

However, as almost all the massive trees, numbering hundreds, were uprooted by the cyclone, the animal enclosures were severely damaged. A senior zoo official said therewere about 150 spotted deer inside the deer enclosures and after the storm most of them escaped into the deer park. Many of the reptiles also managed to escape after the trees caused severe damage to their enclosures, he added.

Bhaskar Nayak, a very experienced animal-keeper who has spent about 20 years in the park looking after the tigers, said the day after the cyclone he and 10 other zoo workers went inside the tiger enclosures. They found all the tigers sheltering in the feeding chambers, looking absolutely stunned. ``Even after hearing our voices, none of the tigers came out, they just peeped out of the chambers,'' he said.

Nayak said he and other officials found all the lions safe and so were almost all the other animals.

Though feed for the carnivores was adequate, the zoo officials found it hard to arrange food for the herbivores such as small monkeys and birds the next day as it was raining heavily. The officials collected food from their own quarters and even provided hot water treatment forthe wet animals.A senior zoo official said the most agonising part was that the natural ambience of the zoo was lost in a span of 12 hours. All the trees, plants, gardens and wild orchids that were grown over the years were destroyed and it may take five years to get back half of what was lost, he added. The botanical garden on the other side of the lake was also devastated.