On March 3 last year, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, the Jawalakhel-based Central Zoo launched ‘Adopt an animal’ campaign as it was struggling to feed the animals and pay staff salaries due to months-long closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

During the Covid lockdown, Nepal’s only zoo remained shut for nearly 10 months, and as a result its main source of income, which came from ticket sales, dried up.

While launching the adoption campaign, the then prime minister KP Sharma Oli and his wife Radhika Shakya announced to adopt a one-horned rhino for a year.

Under the programme, anyone could adopt a zoo animal and this means they had to take full financial responsibility including the animal’s food, nourishment and medication for a year.

As per the adoption policy, it would cost Rs1.5 million to adopt a rhino for a year. Oli had initially handed over Rs100,000 to the zoo, but after that the Prime Minister's Office issued no further payments despite his pledge to pay for the rhino’s care for a full year.

“We contacted the Prime Minister’s Office for the remaining funds, but received no response. Since he is no longer a prime minister, we stopped making a request,” said Rachana Shah, project manager of the Central Zoo. The central zoo has three one-horned rhinos.

On March 26 last year the then forests minister Prem Ale, announced to adopt an elephant and paid Rs125,000. Ale is now tourism minister. Then in August, Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana had adopted a pair of tigers named ‘Jagati’ and ‘Pratab’ for which he paid Rs100,000.

Just less than a month remains for the campaign to complete its first year, but these officials who announced to adopt different animals have neither shown any concerns about the zoo’s condition nor have made further payments.

The central zoo has made various adoption rates and published them on its website. Based on the corporate adoption programme, the annual cost for one-horned rhino, Asian elephant, and Royal Bengal tiger is Rs 1.5 million each, which is the highest among all other animals. There are different adoption costs for other animals. The lowest adoption cost has been fixed at Rs75,000 a year each for the Sarus crane and Himalayan Monal.

Zoo officials said so far 104 individuals and seven private institutions have signed up for the adoption programme. In the past 11 months, the zoo raised a total of Rs3,550,800, which officials say is not enough to feed the animals. The zoo spends Rs30 million on animals per year. It hosts 1,160 individual animals of 110 species– mammals, birds and reptiles among others in the area spread over six hectares.

“Ordinary people and families have been regularly paying the promised adoption fees,” said Lina Chalise, spokesperson at the Central zoo.

“Many people have adopted animals on the occasion of their birthdays or to mark other celebratory occasions,” said Chalise. For individuals, the adoption rate has been fixed between Rs5,000 to Rs250,000 a year.

“We received a lot of queries from the public for animal adoption and found that many people think they can take the zoo animals to their home after signing up for the adoption programme,” said Chalise.

The Central Zoo, established as a private zoo in 1932 by Rana prime minister Juddha Shumsher, later came into the ownership of Nepal government after the political change of the 1950s. But since December 1995, the National Trust for Nature Conservation, has been managing the zoo and it will do so for 30 years.

Before the first pandemic hit the country in the third week of March, 2020, the zoo had 75 staff but now it has reduced the number to 54 owing to a financial crunch. Even during the pandemic, it had slashed staff salaries by up to 50 percent after its incomes dwindled.

“This year the zoo was closed from the third week of January. We will reopen only after receiving permission from the District Administration Office, Lalitpur,” said Shah, the project manager.

When the zoo reopened after nearly 10 months of closure on December 10 last year, visitor flow increased gradually and the number would reach up to 3,000 on weekends, according to Chalise, the spokesperson.

“When the situation becomes normal, we can self-sustain from ticket sales,”said Chalise.

Although the zoo currently remains closed, around 200 people visit the area every day thinking it might have reopened, according to officials.

Before the pandemic, the zoo would see between 3,000 and 5,000 visitors daily and earn around Rs160 million a year from ticket sales. The money would be used for the upkeep of the zoo and to pay staff salaries.

“As the virus situation is easing, we hope to reopen from next week. And the animal adoption programme will be continued,” said Shah.

Nepal on Sunday reported 1,386 new cases of Coronavirus with 11 Covid-19 related fatalities. According to the Health Ministry, the countrywide death toll reached 11,814 and the number of active cases stands at 45,248.

Kathmandu Valley alone reported 566 new infections in the past 24 hours. Of those, 410 cases were confirmed in Kathmandu, 124 in Lalitpur and 32 in Bhaktapur.

In December, 2020 when the zoo was suffering from an acute funds crunch due to the pandemic, the Lalitpur Metropolitan City had donated over Rs1 million.

And in February last year, to remain afloat during the pandemic, the zoo had requested the government for a grant of Rs 150 million. Then in the following month, Oli, the then prime minister, visited the zoo to launch the ‘adopt an animal’ programme.