Mumbai: With no revenue for more than three months due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, city's zoo, aquarium and national park suffer huge losses. While these popular tourist destinations will not be reopening anytime soon, the financial loss will be hampering their endeavour of getting self-sufficient.
Even as expenses towards upkeep and maintenance of these places are taken care of currently, authorities have hinted that future up-gradation of these facilities will have to wait.
The Veermata Jijabai Bhonsale Zoo (Byculla Zoo) is run by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) comes under the state forest department, while the Taraporewala Aquarium is under state fisheries.
March to June every year is considered to be a peak season for these popular tourist destinations as schools shut for summer vacation. However, this year during the peak season these tourists destinations remained closed owing to coronavirus-induced lockdown leading to loss of revenue. Between March to June 2019, the Byculla Zoo collected over Rs 1.87 crore of revenue by selling entry tickets. Before lockdown, during peak season, the revenue collection of Byculla zoo roughly touched 4.5 to 5 lakh per month. However, revenue collected in 2020 up to March 15 is Rs1.92 lakh.
Similarly, Taraporewala Aquarium at Charni road collected total Rs 1.70 crore between March and June 2019, the collection in March 2020 has been Rs 10.67 lakh.
“Owing to the pandemic, there is a downfall in the revenue generation by almost 1.59 crore as compared to the revenue that was collected last year during the same period. For 2020, revenue was collected only during the month of March that too until the lockdown was imposed," Anil Patne, Commissioner of Fisheries, told the Free Press Journal.
At the SGNP, the total annual revenue generated from tourists is approximately Rs 12 to Rs 15 crore. "Roughly every month revenue of above Rupees one crore is generated. Between April and July, which is a peak season due to vacations and rains, we have seen revenue collections even crossing Rs 8 lakh daily quite often. This year there has been no collection due to lockdown," said a senior official SGNP.
SGNP charges entry ticket at the main gate, besides this, a separate amount is charged for activities like tiger and lion safari and boating.
While there have been debates on whether public places like zoo and SGNP be re-opened for the public, state government authorities have maintained that these destinations do not offer essential services and re-opening them would be risky.
In June, Central Zoo Authority (CZA) under the Union environment ministry allowed zoo operators to take a call on reopening zoological parks to visitors following the relaxation of lockdown rules under Unlock 1 from June 1, however, a review by the Maharashtra Zoo Authority (MZA) showed that none of the state zoos has opted to reopen. This also includes SGNP (classified as a mini-zoo by CZA).
Zoo operators highlighted the example of a tiger that had tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes Covid-19, at Bronx Zoo in New York on April 5.
Dr Sanjay Tripathi, director of Byculla Zoo said, "Safety of the animal inmates and our staff (who have been staying the zoo premises since March) is more important. As far as upkeep and maintenance are concerned, BMC is taking care of it. Hence there is no problem in the upkeep and maintenance of the zoo."
