Despite the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) increasing the entry fee for the Botanical Garden, visitors to the facility claimed that it is under-maintained
The University hiked the charges in March 2021, when a herbal garden, an aroma garden, an upgraded children’s park, rabbit and bird-rearing cages and aesthetic solar panel lighting systems were added.
Earlier, the entry fee for adults was ₹20 and ₹10 for kids; ₹100 for still camera photography and ₹500 for commercial videotaping. It has been increased to ₹50, ₹30, ₹500 and ₹5,000 respectively.
“The garden does not have many visitors because the pavements and fountains are neglected and the water bodies are ridden with algae and dead leaves,” said a visitor.
In November 2022, the 113-year-old tropical botanical garden spread across 47.50 acre generated a monthly revenue of ₹2,27,050 through gate fee collection, said TNAU Floriculture and Landscape Architecture Department Head K. Rajamani.
From this, 18 % will be deducted for GST and another 15% will be paid to the institution — so, actual earnings will be ₹1,58,254, according to the garden receipts, he said.
The expenditure exceeds the revenue since the daily wages for the workers rose from ₹450 to ₹816 last year, he claimed.
“The garden is maintained by 15 casual workers allotted by the State. They are engaged only for three days a week, as we do not have enough funds to pay them for six days. Further, 15 contract workers are employed every day for weeding, lawn mowing, pruning, spraying nutrients, plant protection and monitoring. Apart from them, we have employed two tractor drivers. The monthly expenditure as salary for all these workers is ₹3,16,556. The fuel charge for mowers and tractors comes up to ₹80,000 a month,” he said.
Mr. Rajamani claimed that they expect the revenue to increase to ₹4 lakh in the coming months and that the work to improve the garden will be completed in six months.
Published - January 02, 2023 06:22 pm IST
