The Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan, commonly known as Byculla Zoo, earned its highest revenue of R6 lakh in the past one-and-a-half year with nearly 15,000 visitors on Sunday. With people queuing up to see new animals on display, the zoo's recent revamp seems to have paid off.

Apart from the penguin enclosure — which continues to be a hit among visitors, officials said that the aviary, leopard enclosure and the hyena enclosures have brought people in droves.

When the penguin enclosure was thrown open to public three years ago, the footfall at the zoo touched 35,000. However, it could not rake in the moolah for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) as the entry fees at that time was only Rs 5. It was later raised to R50 for adults and Rs 25 for children.

Director of Byculla Zoo, Dr Sanjay Tripathi, said, "The new animals are bringing people back to the zoo. On Sunday alone, the zoo earned Rs 6 lakh."

Also learning from its past mistakes, the BMC has increased security inside the zoo to manage the crows and prevent the chaos that occurred at the time of the penguins' debut. This has also been done keeping in mind the tigers who will be put on display next month. Further, BMC officials said that the fears about people unwilling to pay have also been put to rest as the footfall has only been increasing, especially over the weekend. On weekdays, the number of visitors is over 6,000, and on public holidays and weekend, the number crosses 12,000.

15k

No. of visitors on Sunday

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