Chhatbir Zoo set to reopen on October 15

Since closing down on March 17 owing to the nationwide lockdown, the Zoo has suffered a loss of ₹3.5 crore

After a gap of nearly seven months, the Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park, popularly known as Chhatbir Zoo, is set to reopen on October 15.

Sanitisation of the premises underway ahead of the reopening of Chhatbir Zoo at village Chhat in Mohali on Saturday. (Gurminder Singh/HT)

Zoo field director M Sudhagar said, “We are preparing for the reopening on October 15, but we are waiting for the final nod from the state government. Instructions have been given to the workers to ensure social distancing among visitors. All safety precautions will be taken.”

“We are deciding on how many visitors to allow at one time,” he added.

Since closing down on March 17 owing to the nationwide lockdown, the Zoo has suffered a loss of ₹3.5 crore. The Zoo had been earning ₹1.8 lakh a day before the lockdown and was hoping to become self-reliant in the next two years. Authorities say it will take at least six months to recover from the said losses.

Projects on halt

The Punjab government had planned to open a Dinosaur Park on two acres in the Zoo at a cost of ₹4.5 crore, which was being developed via a public-private partnership (PPP) mode, but only 50% work has been completed so far.

An aquarium was proposed to be set up; and an exotic animal exchange programme, wherein the Zoo was set to import exotic animals including zebras, giraffes, chimpanzees and gorillas from Africa, was slated to begin as well.

Numerous features such as an aviary and new ticket counters were also added to the Zoo premises, besides carrying out road maintenance to attract more visitors.

The zoo spends around ₹30 lakh a month on meat, fodder, grains, fruits and vegetables for the animals.

The revenue is generated through outsourcing of the parking, canteen and lion safari—all of which had to be closed due to the pandemic.

The zoo used to attract around 3,000 visitors a day. The tickets were priced at ₹80 for adults and ₹40 for children, which contributed to generating a daily average revenue of ₹1.8 lakh. Lion and deer safari tickets cost ₹75 per visitor.