Mysuru zoo tops in receiving donations

Mysuru: Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens has topped in the State in receiving donations for adoption of animals.

There are nine zoo parks in the State. Mysuru zoo has received Rs 99,24,300 from 3,670 animal lovers followed by Bannerghatta Biological Park with Rs 61,37,900 from 1,729 people.

Shimoga zoo has received a total donations of Rs 11,30,400 from 297 people. All the nine zoo parks together got a total donation of Rs 2,02,89,500 from 7,275 people. Zoo parks have been closed to tourists in view of lockdown, resulting in drying up of revenue and shortage of funds for maintenance and feeding of animals.

Fund flow from animal lovers started after forest department's brand ambassador Challenging Star Darshan made an appeal to people to contribute generously to save starving animals. Just within a week of his video plea, many people came forward and opened their purse strings.

The Karnataka Zoo Authority (KZA) has thanked all the donors through a tweet. Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens is a popular tourist destination and sees more than 5-10 thousand visitors a day on normal days and the number swells to more than 20,000-30,000 during Dasara.

Karnataka Tourism Minister C P Yogeshwar on Friday announced that all the tourism places in the State will be opened by next week.