This story is from November 17, 2016

Now, wild animals hit by demonetisation

The denotification of 1000 and 500 rupee notes has curtailed tourist footfalls to the wildlife sanctuaries and zoos across Uttarakhand, leading to an indirect impact on wild animals residing in them
Now, wild animals hit by demonetisation
(Representative image)
ALMORA/NAINITAL/DEHRADUN: The demonetisation of 1000 and 500 rupee notes has curtailed tourist footfalls to the wildlife sanctuaries and zoos across Uttarakhand, leading to an indirect impact on wild animals residing in them.
According to officials of Mrig Vihar Zoo in Almora, the situation is such that if revenue from ticket sales continue to fall, it could hit their budget for feeding the animals.
Kevalanand Pandey, an official of the zoo, told TOI, “Even though the state government issues a separate fund to enable food provisions for the animals of the zoo, the funds are often credited quite late requiring the zoo management to supplement the budget with the revenue generated from ticket sales. If we don’t get tourists, we could face difficulties in arranging the provisions for the animals.”
The zoo which has 95 animals including eight leopards, has a monthly food bill of Rs 1.6 lakh. Its revenues have seen a dip from Rs 18,310 in the first week of November to Rs 11,069 in the second week. “The zoo used to get around 300-400 tourists every day, but post demonetisation, on an average, only 40 tourists have been coming,” said Pandey.
It’s a similar situation at the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary which has also witnessed a sharp fall in ticket sales. According to Pandey, who holds additional charge of the sanctuary, there has been a drastic fall in revenue from Rs 2,23,000 in the first week of November to a meagre Rs 45,000 in the second week of the month. “This is probably the first time that the revenue from Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary has witnessed such a sharp decline in such a short time”, said Pandey.
In Corbett National Park, which opened for night stay a couple of days ago, the number of tourists were less on the first day. Officials of the tiger reserve however claimed that night stay in the park would remain largely unaffected due to the current currency conundrum since most of the bookings were done online. “Day visits have been affected to some extent but our facilities for the night stay are currently fully booked,” said Surendra Mehra, director of the tiger reserve.

At the Pandit GB Pant High Altitude Zoo in Nainital, according to DS Meena, the zoo director, footfalls have seen a dip from 500 to 1000 visitors daily to around 100-200 due to the demonetization effect. In Dehradun’s Malsi Deer Park which was recently christened as Dehradun Zoo, the average number of tourists have come down from 2000 to 1500 in the past few days. “Our revenue has seen a decline from Rs 20, 000 to around Rs 15,000 daily,” said Mahesh Mohan Baijwan, range officer of the zoo.
(Inputs by Vineet Upadhyay and Seema Sharma)
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