Mumbai: Entrance to the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary (TCFS), which is the only marine sanctuary in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), has become more expensive for visitors from January 1. The cheapest tickets, which earlier cost ₹30 for an Indian citizen and ₹60 for foreign tourists, are now available at ₹50 and ₹100, respectively; an increase of 66%.
Notably, commercial photography and videography in TCFS have been notably steeper, with Indian citizens now required to pay ₹4,000 a day for still photography and ₹16,000 a day for video recording, up from ₹2,500 and ₹10,000 earlier, respectively. For citizens of other countries, the same charges stand at ₹8,000 and ₹32,000, as against ₹5,000 and ₹20,000 earlier.
The raised costs, officials said, will be used for upkeep and maintenance to keep TCFS compliant with the terms of the Ramsar Convention, to which India is a signatory.
In December 2022, TCFS was granted Ramsar certification. During 2021-22, a record 1,33,000 flamingoes were estimated to have been wintering at the now Ramsar wetland site by researchers at the Bombay Natural History Society.
“This is the first time since TCFS was declared as a protected area that the price of admission has been revised. Though it was initially decided that the price will increase by 10% every year, for some reason the same was missed out. So we have now corrected the same, and will continue to revise this amount annually,” said Virendra Tiwari, additional principal chief conservator of forests (mangrove cell).
{{/usCountry}}“This is the first time since TCFS was declared as a protected area that the price of admission has been revised. Though it was initially decided that the price will increase by 10% every year, for some reason the same was missed out. So we have now corrected the same, and will continue to revise this amount annually,” said Virendra Tiwari, additional principal chief conservator of forests (mangrove cell).
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