The zoo operates on the income generated through ticket sales and a decline in the number of visitors to it has directly affected the wellbeing of the animals inside it along with the zoo’s ongoing and future projects, Sarita Gyawali, Managing Director of the zoo, informed.
“The number of visitors visiting the zoo has dropped down tremendously in the recent months following the blockade. Ticket sale is the zoo’s only income source and with the number of visitors declining, it has directly affected the zoo’s income source. The loss is worrisome,” said Gyawali further adding that loss in income is “directly affecting the animals’ health and our ongoing and future projects,” she said.
During Asoj last year 71874 visitors had visited the zoo generating Rs 6.29 million in revenue. In contrast to it, a total of Rs 4.18 million in revenue was generated from the ticket sales during this Asoj. Similarly, last Kartik, the zoo had earned Rs 7.7 million from ticket sales while the earning for the same month this year rounded off with Rs 4.3 million.
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The zoo charges Rs 100 to Nepali citizens and Rs 500 to foreigners as entry fees.
The unofficial Indian economic blockade was experienced right after the promulgation of the new constitution September 20 and since then the country has been reeling under acute fuel and goods crisis. The crisis has particularly deprived people of fuel and restricted their mobility. This restriction has directly affected the flow of visitors to this zoo that was set up in 1932 by the then Prime Minister Judda Shamsher Rana and opened for public in 1956.
Gyawali says that the loss in revenue has not affected quantity and quality of the food served to the zoo’s inhabitants. “The contractor is taking care of that,” Gyanwali said adding that the shortage of fuel has also affected their plans. “We have not been able to shift several animals to newer enclosures on time. There is no supply of construction materials and now we are also forced to rethink about our future projects and the budget allocated to them,” she said. She said inability to move animals to newer places in lack of fuel has been badly affecting animals’ health. “Animals like tigers and bears are in need of immediate shifting to better cages. And animals needing extra health care, medicines or vital treatment have also been affected to some extent due to the shortage of fuel.”
The massive 7.8 rector scale Gorkha earthquake and its aftershocks had affected shelters and habitats of many the zoo’s inhabitants. The quake had spared only newly built shelters and facilities and the zoo administration was forced into repairing or building new shelters and habitats for animals whose shelters were either damaged or destroyed. However in lack of construction supplies, some of these construction tasks have come to a grinding halt. Even animals whose new shelters were completed and ready to be shifted have been left in the lurch due to fuel shortage. “Construction of some of the shelters had already completed but we were ready to move their inhabitants by the end of Tihar. But that could not be done,” Gyawali stated.
Radhakrishna Gharti, an official at the zoo, informed that most of the visitors at the zoo nowadays are locals or school children. He further added that that prior to the blockade the zoo was a major attraction for people from across the country, mostly visited by those who were in the capital for the first time. “There would be no place to move in on Saturdays. You could see people from different parts of the country jostling to take a view of dancing gorilla or hippo hiding under water. Children would scream and cheer at the sight of tigers and leopards, some would spend hours watching the shy red panda,” he said. “Now it feels like the magic of the zoo is gone. It feels very empty here these days,” Gharti said looking towards the zoo that stretches over 120 ropanis of land.
