With Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes ceasing to be legal tender, Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in the past two days has suffered a loss of nearly Rs 1.5 lakh as they have refused to accept these denominations while visitors have been unable to tender adequate change.
Otherwise, the park collects revenue of nearly Rs 2.4 lakh per day; however on Wednesday, it collected only Rs 1.4 lakh (about 50 per cent of its normal revenue) and on Thursday, Rs 1.3 lakh (just 40 per cent).
SGNP officials said that visitors who had Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes were turned down, infuriating them and leading to further arguments.
They added that there wasn’t any directive from the government to accept the discontinued notes.
“We expect this situation to continue for some time till confusion about the entire notes’ exchange issue is cleared,” said one of the officials.
SGNP has activities such as nature trails, treks, and so on to attract people across age groups.
Park officials have also introduced tent stay which is one of the important activities not only in terms of drawing more visitors but also in terms of creating awareness about the park and its activities.
