Wildlife Parks, zoological gardens and breeding parks situated in the province were visited by over 594,000 people during the three holidays of Eid-ul-Fitr.
Director General Wildlife & Parks Lieutenant Sohail Ashraf (retd) disclosed this while talking to newspersons in his office here on Saturday. Giving break-up, he said that 206,200 people visited Lahore Zoological Gardens and Safari Zoo giving earnings of over Rs6,509,000 while 105,214 people visited Zoological Gardens of Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan thus earning over Rs791,000 in shape of entrance fees.
He said above mentioned facilities and other wildlife parks of the province also witnessed great interest by the visitors despite the sizzling heat. He said rest of the wildlife parks of the province were visited by 387,877 people during the three Eid holidays.
DG Wildlife said that special security arrangements were made by the department and Lahore Zoological Gardens earned Rs48,180,00 during these three days while Safari Zoo was visited by over 35,000 people earning an income of over Rs900,000 to the facility. Bahawalpur Zoo was visited by 67,430 people earning an income of Rs4,281,80 and Dera Ghazi Khan was visited by 37,784 people giving an income of Rs3,628,20.
Lieutenant Sohail Ashraf (retd) said that the department was working on its mission of providing cheaper entertainment to masses especially children with lots of facilities. He said that strategy to shift surplus animals of different zoo, wildlife parks and breeding centres besides importing new animals has also been finalized and hoped that implementation of this strategy would witness a record surge of visitors to these facilities in the province.