Alipore Zoo, Eco Park see highest footfall of season as festive mood sets in among Kolkatans

Kolkata: With the winter setting in and pleasant weather conditions prevailing in the city, almost all of its tourist destinations on Sunday witnessed the highest footfall of the season so far.

With Christmas just eight days away, city dwellers thronged Alipore Zoo, Eco Park, Victoria Memorial, Science City and Nicco Park in large numbers from Sunday morning, soaking in the festive mood. Children clad in colourful attire were found visiting the Alipore Zoo with their family members.

The Alipore Zoo has always been one of the major centres of attraction in the city, especially for children, who were seen thronging along with their parents in front of the tigers' cages.

12-year-old Dipsikha Majumdar, who is a student of Class VI in an English medium school in the city, visited the zoo along with her family members. She insisted her parents to visit the tigers' enclosure.

Dipsikha's father Swapan Majumdar, a state government employee, took her to the open arena where people can have the best glimpses of the tigers. They waited for nearly half an hour in the morning to see the tigers, as they preferred to remain inside the cave, thereby eluding the visitors for a while. As the day progressed, the tigers were seen stepping out of their cages and basking in the sun, giving enormous pleasure to the children. People gathered in large numbers outside the enclosure of the chimpanzee as well. Many others were seen standing outside the cages of their favourite animals.

The zoo authorities are taking all possible measures to handle the crowd during Christmas and New Year. They have decided to open an additional ticket counter to meet the extra rush of visitors during the period.

There will be adequate deployment of police personnel outside the zoo to handle the crowd. The zoo authorities hope that the number of visitors will go up in the last week of December.

People were seen with great enthusiasm at Eco Park as well, on Sunday. Children enjoyed toy train and boating and indulged in various water sports. People stood in long queues for taking a boat ride along the surrounding waterbody.

The replicas of the seven wonders of the world have always been a crowd puller at the park. People were seen capturing selfies in front of the replicas of Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower.

Visitors also enjoyed cycling in the special area, particularly riding tandem bicycles, while many others enjoyed boating. The foodies gathered at Café Ekante and houseboat restaurant to enjoy quality food.

Situated in Kolkata's neighbourhood, Eco Park has come up as one of the biggest tourist attractions for several reasons, with an important one being availability of ample space to park vehicles without hassle, due to foolproof arrangement of New Town Kolkata Development Authority.