India

Cannot keep your favourite animal at home? Delhi zoo will soon let you adopt one.

The adoption prices start from an annual fee of Rs. 700 for a bird to Rs. 6,00,000 for rhinos, lions, and tigers.

The National Zoological Park (Delhi Zoo) has come up with a novel idea of letting people adopt animals where they will be paying for the care of those animals living at the zoo and in turn, such animal lovers will be able to play a small role in wildlife conservation.

The person who adopts an animal will be given a membership card mentioning his name and the animal’s name with the help of which the adopter will be allowed to enter the zoo during visiting hours once every month without any separate fee. The adopter may though be stopped from visiting in case of any outbreak of a pandemic or zoonotic disease. In addition, the enclosure in which the animal resides will have the name of the person who adopted it engraved.

The adoption prices start from a nominal annual fee of Rs. 700 for a bird. The cost of adopting a sambar deer, swamp deer, or the extraordinary hornbill will be Rs40,000, Indian Wolf will be around Rs. 1, 80,000 and the Indian Bison or gaur at Rs. 2,25,000. Similarly, the higher-end species such as leopards will be Rs. 3,60,000 and will go up to Rs. 6,00,000 for adopting rhinos, lions, and tigers.

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change which runs the Delhi Zoo in its official notice mentioned that the adoption will be for one or two years but the same can be withdrawn if the need arises, although the paid amount will not be refunded which will go back to the zoo every quarter for the betterment and welfare activities of the animals.

Earlier, the NCT Delhi administration had brought out a similar scheme where one could adopt a tree and be its caretaker.  As for the current scheme, Nandankanan zoo based in Odisha is already practicing alike adoption scheme.

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