LAHORE: Ticket price for entry into the Lahore Zoo for both adults and children may be increased in the near future, sources in the Punjab Wildlife Department told Dawn on Friday.

Sources said that in a meeting of the Zoo Management Committee held on Oct 21, members discussed revision of the ticket price. Currently, the price for adults is Rs15 and children Rs5, which was fixed six years ago.

Committee members were of the view that rates of contracts for different needs of the zoo such as feed increased along with inflation. The gap between supply and demand of those zoo items was gradually widening. Though currently the gap was not too big, but if in future it widened further, it could put the zoo into trouble, they added.

Keeping in view ever-increasing prices, the committee would send a proposal to the forest secretary through the wildlife director general for an increase in ticket price. The new price suggested is Rs30 for adults and Rs20 for children.

Punjab Wildlife Department Director General Nayyar Iqbal said the department was considering raising the ticket price, however nothing had been finalised yet. To a question that Sri Lanka was supposed to gift two elephants to the Zoo Safari, the director general said the elephants would be gifted by the president of Sri Lanka when he would visit Pakistan.

Sources in the Punjab Wildlife Department told Dawn Sri Lankan president’s visit was supposed to take place sometime ago however due to the sit-ins in Islamabad the visit could not materialise.

The addition of two elephants to the Zoo Safari would be valuable to the captive wildlife scene in the city. Projects to give the safari a new look and addition of new animals were also in the pipeline.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2014