Covid pushes Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological Park into Crisis

Authorities are requesting celebrities, businessmen and people to come forward and adopt animals by sponsoring their expenses

Interested in adopting a Royal Bengal Tiger from the Nehru Zoological Park? How about a lion or a leopard? This Covid-19 crisis could be the right time for these animals and their caretakers are in dire need of help.

This is after the pandemic cast its shadow on the revenue of the zoo as well. The zoo, popular among both tourists and the city’s people alike, has been closed for more than three months now, robbing it of its only source of revenue. To tide over the crisis, the zoo authorities are now hoping that celebrities and businessmen come forward and ‘adopt’ the animals, by sponsoring their expenses for a fixed period.

Spread over 300 acres and home to nearly 181 indigenous and exotic species, including 1,716 animals, birds, and reptiles, the zoo is known to be one of the best zoos in Asia and attracts around 30 lakh visitors annually.

With the pandemic forcing the closing of its gates to the public, maintenance and payment of salaries to animal caretakers has become a challenging task.

“The money for food for animals is provided by the government. But still, the animal caretakers and other staff here have to come every day to take care of the animals and premises. So we have to pay them salaries,” said N Kshitija, Curator, Nehru Zoological Park.T Today