Visitors at Patna zoo. Telegraph picture

Patna, March 31: The plan to make Patna zoo a polythene-free zone from April has come to a nought. The zoo officials have failed to find a vendor to supply sufficient number of cloth bags for use as a substitute to polythene bags of visitors.

The idea of making Patna zoo a polythene-free zone was conceived in January this year.

It was earlier decided that bags made of recyclable paper would be made available to visitors at the zoo gates. But the plan was purged after a few days.

The zoo authorities came up with a plan-B soon after.

They thought providing cloth bags instead of paper bags would be prudent because they would have a longer shelf life and people would not hesitate to pay for such bags.

Keeping the time factor in selecting the vendor for this purpose in mind, the zoo officials had planned to introduce the system from April 1 this year. But they failed to find a suitable vendor on time.

“We discussed the matter with several vendors but no one agreed to supply the cloth bags, stating that the scale of business was not attractive enough,” zoo director Abhay Kumar told The Telegraph.

But Kumar is not in despair over the setbacks in making the zoo a polythene-free zone. The delay notwithstanding, he is keen to turn it “green”. He has devised a way to attract suppliers for this purpose.

“Tenders have been floated for setting up a zoo souvenir shop near the gate number one. The vendor selected for setting up the shop would also be given the task of supplying cloth bags to visitors,” said the zoo director.

He said the clubbing of the two services would appear more attractive to those interested in opening the shop as well as in supplying cloth bags to be sold to visitors.

As far as timeframe for making the zoo premises a polythene-free area is concerned, the zoo officials are moving more cautiously this time.

“The tender process for the souvenir shop is likely to be over by mid-May. The introduction of cloth bags for visitors would depend on the time taken in opening the souvenir shop after the finalisation of the vendor because the two works have now been interlinked,” Kumar said.

Sharing details about the purpose of opening the souvenir shop, the director said: “Items related to wildlife, environment and the zoo would be on display at the shop. The vendor would have the liberty to put on sale even other items that promote awareness on wildlife and environment-related issues.”

In January, the efforts of the authorities to turn the zoo green had hit double hurdle.

While they failed to find a vendor to supply recyclable paper bags at a reasonable price, the visitors had expressed their reluctance to buy them.