Katraj Zoo Wants 50% More for a Ticket. It Hasn't Finished the Upgrade It's Charging For.

A family of four headed to Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park on a Sunday has been paying ₹40 a head to get in since 2018. If the Pune Municipal Corporation's Garden Department gets its way, that same family will soon pay ₹60 - a jump reported as both "50% higher" and "1.5 to 2 times," depending on which outlet you read, which usually means the exact number isn't fully settled yet either. The proposal covers entry fees and the battery-operated vehicle charge inside the park; guide and filming fees stay where they are. It's sitting with the PMC Standing Committee, waiting on a final call.

What the extra money is supposedly for

PMC's pitch isn't just "costs went up," though rising maintenance expenses are the official reason given. There's a bigger plan behind it: a master plan to redevelop the zoo's 130 acres to "international standards," including a new bird park and new animals - zebras and lion-tailed macaques have both come up in recent coverage. Municipal Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram personally visited the park to review progress and push for faster completion of the projects already underway.

None of that redevelopment is finished. The fee increase, if approved, would be.

A zoo trip is already a full-car occasion

Nobody drives to Katraj Zoo alone. It's a destination built for groups - a family on a weekend, a school outing, a few neighbourhood kids and whichever parent is driving that Sunday. That's exactly the kind of trip where splitting one car between two families, instead of each taking their own, already pays for itself in fuel and parking before anyone's even bought a ticket. If entry really is about to cost 50% more, the couple of hundred rupees a family of four might save by riding over with another family covers a meaningful chunk of that increase - no master plan required.

The zoo will probably get its redevelopment eventually, on its own timeline. The fee hike doesn't seem to be waiting for it.

Photo: Universalashic, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.