Heavy rush at Vandalur zoo, daily footfall touches 17,000

Preparations have begun for the Pongal season when around 60,000 people a day are expected to visit the Arignar Anna Zoological Park

The Arignar Anna Zoological Park (AAZP) has been seeing a swell in visitors as the year draws to a close.

Crowds thronged the zoo on Thursday, the second consecutive day of the week when the footfall touched 17,000. The crowds are a trial run before the Pongal holidays, for which the zoo was mobilising police and medical personnel to manage the huge number of visitors, said R. Kanchana, Deputy Director, of the Arignar Anna Zoological Park.

Expecting around 60,000 visitors a day during the Pongal festival days, the zoo officials have written to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) to deploy 150 additional officers.

The butterfly park, children’s park, aquarium, and the nocturnal animal house are some of the facilities that have opened this year after a two-year closure due to the pandemic, said Manikanda Prabhu, Assistant Director of the park.

Only the deer and lion safari is yet to be reopened as the number of lions are less now, said Srinivas Reddy, Director of the zoo. Negotiations were on to acquire a pair of Asiatic lions from Sakkarbaug Zoological Park, Junagadh, Gujarat, he said and added that the pair had to breed so the entire pride could be used for the safari tour.

In 2022, the zoo got four wild dogs, a Bengal tiger, two Whitaker’s boas, and four checkered kneelback snakes from the Pilikula Biological Park, Mangaluru, in exchange for a white tiger and an ostrich. The zoo received a hybrid lion, two Sarus cranes, four red jungle fowls, two golden pheasants, and four rosy pelicans from the Wajid Ali Shah Zoological Garden, Lucknow, in exchange for a female white tiger.