Alipore zoo: Over Rs 13 lakh raised through adoption during last fiscal

kolkata: Ninety people have adopted animals at Alipore Zoo in 2020- 2021.

The director of Zoological Garden, Asis Kumar Samanta said that the drop in price, along with new strategies taken by the zoo administration on animal adoption programmes has prompted the growth.

"We have changed several strategies like monthly adoption, photograph of the adopter in the specific enclosures, so that people visiting the zoo get interested in the programme," Samanta said.

The cost incurred through adoption is diverted to the overall welfare of the animal like food and medicine. Between 2021 and 2022, the total amount raised by adoption is Rs 13,62,200.

Samanta said that even though this amount is nothing in front of the total expenditure by the zoo per year which is Rs 3.6 crore, it does lift a burden off the zoo's shoulders. "We have got Rs 30-40 lakh rupees (till date) from adoption, which is not a lighter matter," he said.

The zoo has been running an adoption programme since 2013. According to Samanta, the motto of this is to involve more people in the programmes by the zoo and take them a step closer to adopting animals.

For the year 2021 to 2022, there are 63 adopters in total. Out of which, 50 people have taken annual adoption and only 13 people have opted for the monthly ones.

The number for adoption for 2022 to 2023 (till date) is 31, out of which, eight are monthly adopters and the rest 23 are annual adopters.

Animals adopted include Chimpanzee, Giraffe, Zebra, Kangaroo and Bengal Tiger, amongst others. The most famous of them all is a Chimpanzee named Babu.