Zoo, children’s park to open today, only 10 visit museums on Day 1 after Covid

Zoo, children’s park to open today, only 10 visit museums on Day 1 after Covid

Arrangements Made To Follow Pandemic Protocol At Zoo, Parks; Museums Expect More Visitors

Oppili P & Yogesh Kabirdoss TNN

11.11.2020

The zoo at Vandalur, children’s park and snake park in Guindy will begin receiving visitors from Wednesday, more than seven months after they were shut due to Covid-19. But, the monuments at Mamallapuram will remain closed as they come under the category of tourist attractions that cannot reopen. Two museums thrown open on Tuesday met with lukewarm response with only 10 visitors.

Elaborate arrangements have been made at the zoo, with the children’s park, aquarium, reptile house, butterfly house, walkthrough aviary, nocturnal animal house, interpretation centre and narrow paths off limits for visitors. A maximum of 7,000 visitors will be allowed daily.

Golf carts with a capacity to transport 14 visitors will carry only seven each, the lion safari vehicle that can transport 25 people per trip will have only 13 visitors per trip, said a zoo official. Chairs meant for visitors, golf carts and batteryoperated vehicles have been disinfected.

Asked if the animals that had spent the last seven months in a quiet atmosphere be affected with the reopening of the zoo to the visitors, the official said that even during the peak of the lockdown, at least 400 people including zoo keepers and official of various ranks had been coming into the zoo. The animals would come out of their enclosures by 9am and return around 4.30 in the evening.

“This routine was meticulously followed during the lockdown period. Moreover, every animal enclosure has a CCTV camera, which is exclusively monitored by a team of zoo staff. When an animal is found to be sick or behaving unusually, its health condition is checked and treatment provided accordingly.”

With restrictions in place, the number visitors to the zoo or the children’s park will be minimal. Citing the example of theatres in the city, the official said that on Tuesday, theatres recorded very poor patronage. “We expect a similar situation in the zoo and the park,” the official added.

Only a handful visited the Government Museum at Egmore and ASI museum in Fort St George till 3pm on Tuesday. Irshad Pathan of Greater Noida near Delhi, who was in Chennai for an official work, visited the museum. “It was our weekly off and we just wanted to move around the city and that brought us to the Government Museum in Egmore,” he said. The museum has introduced touch-free toilets and added more wash basins before galleries. “We are expecting footfalls to increase in weeks to follow,” Commissioner of Museums M S Shanmugam said.