The Christmas holidays brought cheer to the city zoo that has been seeing an increase in footfall ever since it reopened at the end of October.
The zoo clocked a revenue of ₹32.98 lakh in the last month of 2021. This was a huge jump from the revenue in November—₹18.2 lakh.
The zoo reopened on October 25, after being closed for six months in the wake of the second wave of COVID-19. In 2020, after opening post the first wave of the pandemic, the zoo collection was ₹13.31 lakh in December.
During the Christmas break in 2021, the maximum collection logged was on December 26—₹3.12 lakh. The day before, on Christmas, the zoo earned ₹2.89 lakh through ticket sales.
With city residents out and about in good numbers to make the most of the easing of COVID restrictions, the number of visitors to the verdant zoo and museum complex has surged.
There have been a number of days even before Christmas when the earnings hovered near ₹1 lakh, says zoo superintendent T.V. Anil Kumar. In December, the total footfall was nearly 1.18 lakh visitors.
The Napier Museum too earned ₹2.1 lakh in December with as many as 13,669 visitors.
The month before, the museum’s total collection was nearly ₹1.5 lakh with 7,987 visitors. Zoo and museum authorities find the trend encouraging, and hope the visitor count will keep going north till it reaches the pre-pandemic levels. Strict COVID-19 protocols continue to be observed.
Mr. Anil Kumar says additions to the zoo animal collection this month will help attract more visitors. A pair of sloth bears and green iguanas will be brought from the Hyderabad zoo in exchange for two pairs each of white and brown rhea chicks.
There is also a proposal to bring a pair of lions and three common langurs—one male and two female—from the Indore zoo. The city zoo has only two elderly lions at present. Mr. Anilkumar says the zoo infrastructure has been improved, and focus is now on improving the animal collection.
