E- bicycle at Kurumbapatti Zoological Park gets good response from visitors

good respone to e-bicycle service at park in salem

The e-bicycle service introduced by the Forest Department for tourists visiting Kurumbapatti Zoological Park has received good response from the public.

The park, located at the Yercaud foothills and functioning since 1976, is an important tourist attraction for residents of Salem district. It attracts 1.41 lakh visitors annually.

In 2011, the park was expanded to 76 acre from nearly 27 acre. Recently, the Forest Department sanctioned ₹8 crore to expand the facility and upgrade it to a medium-category park. Through this, the work for expanding the park to nearly 326 acre is going on. The park has 221 animals, including birds.

To attract more visitors to the park, the department has introduced e-bicycle service.

Assistant Director and Assistant Conservator of Forests (ACF) R. Selvakumar said, “we have bought 10 e-bicycles at a cost of ₹32,000 each under the Eco Tourism Fund. The tourists shall pedal the cycle or run it using batteries. On June 7, we introduced the service. We fixed ₹50 for one hour and ₹30 for half-an-hour for using the e-cycle. The tourists shall watch the animals by moving in the cycle and cover over 2 km in the park.” “We got good response for the e-bicycle service. During weekends, many tourists wait to get on the bicycle. Tourists feel it is a good experience and healthy. The works at the park are going on, and we expect the construction of an enclosure for animals to be completed by year-end,” Mr. Selvakumar added.