After 84 days, Delhi zoo throws open its gates

It was shut down on October 19 after birds died due to avian flu

back in action: Visitors at the Delhi zoo on Wednesday. — Photo: V.V.KRISHNAN

A total of 6,020 people visited the Delhi Zoological Park on Wednesday 84 days after it finally opened its gates to visitors following a shut-down in mid-October last year when several birds died due to avian influenza virus.

On October 19, the Delhi Zoo was declared a quarantine zone and made strictly off limits for the general public.

‘Pleasant surprise’

Zoo spokesperson R.A. Khan said: “We were pleasantly surprised with the number of visitors on the first day and feel that this is a healthy trend. We still don’t have the break-up of the adults, children and foreigners who visited today and there are still no figures of the monetary collections from the ticket sales.”

He added that all exhibits were open for the general public except the pond “as we are taking precaution for the three chicks of Pelican that are housed there. Staff vehicles are also not being allowed in the area. The same routine will be followed for a month or two.”

Also yet to go digital the Delhi Zoo official said that as of now there was no plan to introduce digital mode of payment. “Cash will be the only medium for entry fee payment.”

Meanwhile the other parks, including Hauz Khas Deer Park, the district park in Paschim Vihar, and a water body in Madipur, which were also closed on account of the bird flu outbreak, re-opened on Wednesday.

The Delhi government had last week asked the Union government for its permission to reopen the parks and the zoo stating that the particular strain of avian influenza infecting and killing birds was found to be the rare H5N8, which is not known to harm humans, unlike the H5N1 flu.