Morning-walkers at Patna zoo on Thursday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, March 3: Get ready to pay to walk at Patna zoo. Plans are afoot to make passes mandatory for morning-walkers. They will come for a premium.

The move is aimed at regulating the number of visitors to the zoo during happy hours — between 5.45am and 7.45am — when the entry to the zoo is free. Around 3,000 people visit the zoo daily during these hours. There is no ban on entry of morning-walkers even on Mondays, when the zoo remains closed officially.

The Patna zoo has come up with the proposal of introducing the pass system to fulfil its commitment to the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) on regulating the number of morning-walkers. “The CZA had raised this point while assessing the proposal of the master plan for developing the zoo for which we had sought an assistance of Rs 25 crore,” zoo director Abhay Kumar said.

The CZA was in favour of a complete ban on the practice of giving morning-walkers free access to the zoo. “But after we expressed our inability to do so in one go, it agreed to our plan of regulating the number of visitors,” Kumar told The Telegraph.

According to the plan, each morning-walker would have to pay Rs 200 for a monthly pass, Rs 500 for a quarterly pass and Rs 1,500 for an annual pass. Talks are also on to ban the entry of morning-walkers on Mondays.

The zoo director believes the introduction of pass system would weed out the non-serious walkers. The zoo officials have made a video on people coming to the zoo for other reasons than walking. While one of the footages shows a group of people sitting idle, one shows some plucking flowers from plants along the main roads of the zoo.

“These are just examples. We have seen people coming to the zoo directly from the railway station with their baggage and using the facilities here for their morning chores,” said the zoo director, adding that the proposal to introduce passes had been sent to the department concerned for approval.

Confirming to have received a proposal in this regard, chief wildlife warden Mithilesh Kumar said: “I would soon discuss all the points of the proposal with the zoo director for giving it final touches. Thereafter, it would be sent for the final approval of the state government.”

Kumar conceded that there was a need to regulate the flow of morning-walkers because no other zoo in the country offered such a facility.

There should not be much problem in getting the approval of the state government for introducing the passes. People, too, appear to be in its favour.

“Non-serious walkers need to be discouraged as they create problems for people like us who come here to walk from the health point of view,” former director-general of police Ashish Ranjan Sinha said. He has been a regular visitor to the zoo since 1988.

Umakant Singh, another regular to Patna zoo, opined that the zoo authorities should also verify the credentials of the persons before issuing passes.