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Tirupati: 2 years on, SV Zoo Park limping back to normalcy
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests N Prateep Kumar inaugurating the Asitatic lion enclosure at SV Zoo park in Tirupati on Sunday. Curator M Hima Sailaja and other officials are also seen.
- From an average of Rs 6 crore per annum before the pandemic, the revenue falls steeply to Rs 1.82 cr in 2020-21
- In the current fiscal, the revenue and visitor footfalls have improved significantly
Tirupati: After two years of low turnout of visitors during Covid pandemic, Sri Venkateswara Zoological park has been gradually limping back to normalcy over the past few months. The number of visitors and revenue position of zoo park has also been improved.
As per the details given by the zoo park curator M Hima Sailaja, the revenue of Zoo park was increasing every year along with the visitor footfall. From 5.22 lakh visitors and a revenue of Rs 1.76 crore in 2012-13, the figures have gone up to 6.87 lakh and Rs 5.70 crore revenue by 2018-19. But it has to be closed down from March 20 to November 15, 2020 in view of Covid-induced lockdown and other restrictions, the visitor footfall was affected slightly in 2019-20 as it dropped to 6.48 lakh.
The closure of zoo park has laid a huge adverse impact on its revenue as it dropped to a meagre Rs 1.82 crore in 2020-21 while only 2.22 lakh people could visit. Again, it has to be closed for visitors during Covid second wave from May 4, 2021 to July 18, 2021.
During the current fiscal, the footfall has improved to 3.92 lakh till March 25, 2022 whereas the revenue has almost doubled from the previous year to Rs 3.66 crore. It is expected that 2022-23 may be more fruitful both in terms of revenue and footfalls.
Needless to say that the main source of revenue for the zoo park is only entry tickets through which they used to get around Rs 6 crore per annum out of which they have to pay the salaries of about Rs 3.5 crore and a Rs 2.5 crore have to be spent on food for animals. The grant being provided by the government was inadequate and the zoo park has to mobilise its own resources.
The zoo park authorities have been pushing forward the animal adoption scheme in order to stabilise the revenue generation. Though it has been giving some results, yet, it still has a long way to go. The curator told The Hans India that they were hopeful of attracting more visitors with the new attractions in the zoo park.
She said that they have launched Asiatic lion safari on Sunday besides the reconstructed bioscope. The enclosure was constructed at a cost of Rs 1.06 crore and the Asiatic lions were acquired from Sakkarbaug zoological park, Junagadh, Gujarat through animal exchange programme during October 2019. The bioscope was renovated by spending Rs 4 lakh which can exhibit flora & fauna of Seshachalam hills.
