Nurture your special animal, help BBP!
Funds-hit zoo lists adoption rates, from Rs 2,000 for parakeets to Rs 1.75 lakh for jumbos
BENGALURU:
Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) in Bengaluru, a popular destination for tourists and nature lovers, has an innovative solution to the drying up of ticket revenues during the ongoing countrywide lockdown. It is offering animal lovers of all ‘stripes’ a chance to adopt ‘wards’ ranging from reptiles and birds to the big cats and the biggest of land animals. Needless to say, the rates rise with the size and nutritional/habitat requirements of the park’s inmates. The donations will cover food, maintenance and veterinary expenses of the individual ‘adoptee’.
BBP gets the maximum number of visitors during the summer holidays. But this year, the zoo has had to stay shut due to the lockdown. The zoo needs around Rs 3 crore per month to feed its animals and pay salaries to the employees. The move has been prompted not only by monetary considerations but also to prevent the risk of the corona virus spreading among visitors. Not least, it will serve to safeguard the health of the animals — a factor that is particularly relevant since a recent report of a New York zoo tigress being infected by a handler shows that human-to-animal transmission of the virus can happen.
Under the new scheme, among the bigger animals, one can donate Rs 1.75 lakh to adopt an elephant, Rs 1 lakh for a tiger, lion or giraffe, Rs 75,000 for a hippopotamus, Rs 50,000 for a zebra, and Rs 35,000 for an Indian leopard, sloth bear, Asiatic black bear and gaur.
For the smaller mammals, the BBP has fixed Rs 20,000 as the adoption fee for a golden jackal, Indian grey wolf, striped hyena, dhole and wild dog.
Tax benefit
The minimum donation is Rs 2,000 and the maximum Rs 1,75,000. Donations are eligible for Income-Tax deductions under Sec 80 G(5)(iv). Also, donors will get a voucher for one-time zoo, safari and butterfly park entry for up to five persons. All categories of donors are eligible to participate in conferences or workshops organised by BBP.
Bannerghatta is a popular tourist attraction and BBP is a place where a variety of mammals, reptiles and birds of both exotic and Indian origin, comprising 1,941 in all and belonging to 94 species, are displayed in semi-captivity.
