Zoo, botanical gardens earned Rs. 1 bn last year

By Ifham Nizam

The national zoological garden and the three botanical gardens had jointly generated a record income of Rs. 01 billion in 2011.

The directors of the establishments are confident that with latest technologies and modern facilities, more visitors would visit the Zoo and the gardens this year.

A record number of people, both locals and foreigners, visited the three botanical gardens last year, which resulted in the highest revenue in the history of the gardens being generated.

According to National Botanical Gardens, Director General, Dr. Cyril Wijesundara last year 2,098,985 people visited the botanical gardens at Peradeniya, Hakgala and Gampaha.

"It is the highest number of visitors recorded in the history of the Department," Wijesundara.

The Economic Development Ministry says 1,862,222 local visitors and 236,763 foreigners visited the botanic gardens.

To date, the number of foreign visitors to this year (236,763) shows a 12.6 per cent increase when compared to the number of foreigners that visited last year (210,949).

The Department earned suchrecord revenue through entrance fees, plant sales, and rentals etc. The income amounted to Rs. 353.4 million.

"This is 96.7 per cent increase in revenue compared to the previous year 2010. (Rs. 179.6 million) for the similar period. The revenue earned from visitors to the garden is Rs.329 million and revenue earned from other sources was Rs.24.4 million," he said.

Meanwhile, the National Zoological Gardens had earned Rs. 651 million during 2011. This comprised 163 million rupees from Dehiwala Zoo, 487 million rupees from the Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala and Rs.16 million from others.

This is the highest ever income in the history of the Department of National Zoological Gardens, says National Zoological Gardens, Director, Bhashwara Senanka Gunaratne. The National Botanical Gardens Department and Zoological Department together earned a record Rs. one billion last year.

There were 1,689,712 and 463,982 of local visitors and 20396 and 2,438,541 of foreign visitors to the Dehiwala zoo and Elephant Orphanage in Pinnawala.

Gunaratne told The Island that this was the highest number of visitors that visited the Zoological Gardens in the history of the Department.

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