LUCKNOW: Now, think beyond making your friends a part of your birthday treat and celebration. How about making tigers and lions at Lucknow zoo join in the festivities, too?
You can include them on your special day by sponsoring the one-time meal of a lion, tiger or leopard at Lucknow zoo. What’s more: your name would be displayed on the LED screen at the ticket counter at the zoo.
A meeting on the new scheme was held on Tuesday. Lucknow zoo is celebrating its 100th year and launching a scheme like this would add to its popularity.
The department of environment, forests and climate change (EFCC) has come up with this novel way to involve the public and boost a connect with wildlife. Children, who constitute a considerable chunk of visitors to zoo, would relish the idea.
Additional chief secretary, EFCC, Manoj Singh said, “We have worked out the per-day per-tiger meal cost, which would make it easy for people to sponsor the meal for these inmates.”
The scheme is meant for large carnivores such as lions, tigers and leopards. The one-time meal of a tiger and a lion at Lucknow zoo costs around Rs 2,400 while that of a leopard is around Rs 800. A tiger eats 12-14kg meat at a time. The young ones eat more. A leopard, on the contrary, eats around 4kg meat at a time.
The decision also stems from the fact that last year, city residents had shown immense sensitivity and generosity by contributing towards the zoo’s adoption scheme. The lockdown had impacted the earning of the zoo but through the adoption scheme, zoo had gathered about a crore from institutes, organizations and individuals.
“At least 350 people in Lucknow alone had adopted animals at the zoo last year,” said director RK Singh.
The new scheme, to be implemented shortly, is meant to make it possible for many people who want to adopt felines at the zoo but the high annual cost keeps them away.
The scheme might be implemented in other zoos of the state also.
