RIGA, Feb 15 (LETA) - Elephants might not return to the Riga Zoo, according to a presentation of the future plans for the Riga Zoo at the Riga City Council housing and environment committee.

There are different variants proposed for the future development of the Riga Zoo. One of the variants promotes exhibition "Africa, Tanzania", putting the white rhinoceros in the limelight of the exhibition.

An alternative variant would be "Kongo" with gorilla as the central animal. The third variant is "Asian rain forest and elephant forest".

Representatives of the Riga Zoo reminded that in 2003 when elephants were sent off to the Netherlands, it was promised that they will return when a modern elephant house is built.

Today, the committee members were informed that in order to meet international requirements, the Riga Zoo would have to allocate such a large territory fr elephants that would reduce chances to house other interesting species.

In order to implement the Africa, Tanzania project, more than EUR 42 million are needed, but for a project which includes elephants EUR 83 million are necessary.

All future development variants provide for a completely new approach to the zoo exhibition and people's interaction with animals, forming the zoo into a biopark.