Etawah, Dec 7 (IANS): The district unit of Samajwadi Party is all set to launch a massive agitation in view of the back-to-back death of lions and other wild animals at the Safari Park in Etawah.

The party activists have handed a memorandum addressed to the Governor to the district magistrate, seeking investigations into a series of deaths of wild animals, allegedly due to negligence by the Safari staff.

District president of Samajwadi Party Gopal Yadav said, "There is an atmosphere of despair among the people of the region due to the deaths of these rare animals in the Safari. Action should be taken against the guilty staff and a full-time director should be appointed. The way the situation has worsened in Safari, it seems that the government is neglecting Safari because this project, which is of an international repute, was launched under the SP government's regime. There should not be any kind of politics in this. If there is further neglect from the government, we will launch a bigger movement."

The government, meanwhile, has taken the issue of frequent deaths of wildlife in the Etawah Safari park seriously and the deputy director Jai Prakash Singh has been transferred after lion Kesari's death. Preparations are now underway to bring in a full-time director also as there has been no full-time director in the Safari for two years.