Lucknow, May 19 (IANS): The monkeys are gorging on muskmelons, watermelons and cucumbers.

This is served to them along with boiled mango juice known as 'aam panna' to prevent heat strokes.

Along with it, boiled mango juice (panna), known for preventing heat strokes, has been added to the menu.

Seasonal fruits and juices have been added in the diet chart of the chimpanzees to provide them with vitamins and fibres.

The Lucknow Zoo has prepared a special diet for its inmates in order to protect them from intense heat.

"With spurt in temperatures, we have taken multiple precautions to keep the inmates safe. While adequate arrangements of coolers, water sprinklers and khas shade have been made, diet is also being regulated. On the advice of doctors, we have included mixtures of minerals and electrolytes in the meal package," said Ashok Kashyap, chief veterinary officer, Lucknow Zoo.

He said that the deer are being provided with cucumbers, leaves, cheery grass, beans and wheat gram soaked in a mineral mixture to maintain the mineral balance in their bodies.

Bears are also being served a mixture of barley, chappatis and milk and rice porridge.

The members of the big cat family are being served meat with multi vitamins and mineral medicines to help them beat the scorching heat.

Minerals and multivitamins have also been added in the food grains meant for the birds while the water served to them has electoral and liver tonics with B Complex mixed in it.

Eggs, which help them in keeping warm in winters, have been removed from the diet of almost all inmates while the diet of hippopotamus now includes an increased intake of green grass, cucumbers and leafy vegetables.