nagpur contractors decision to not supply meat fruits and vegetables to the citys maharajbagh zoo due to pending bills will leave over 350 animals and birds in the lurchaccording to official sources the food bills run up to about rs7 lakh per month dues worth rs20 lakh are pending for may june and july which is why contractors have threatened to halt supplies from mondayzoo controller and associate dean kd thakur of the college of agriculture run by the panjabrao deshmukh krishi vidyapeeth pdkv admitted that some bills were pending but said they will be cleared soondue to the pandemic there were no grants and the garden and zoo were both closed we were somehow managing to pay up from the university funds so far we will release the pending bills soon and not let animals suffer said thakurzoo officerincharge dr ss bawaskar confirmed that bills are pending for the last few months the file for grants has been sent to the university and top officials have been apprised about the matter we hope the grants will be released soon he saidsources say all is not well with the city zoo which witnesses over one lakh visitors every month more people visit the zoo to see animals than the garden but there is no separate account for the zoo never in the last 20 years have bills for animal food been delayed like this pdkv wants to run the zoo like telangkhedi and botanical gardens both of which have been closed for visitors due to negligence by university officials they saidmaharajbagh zoo has been deliberately divided into garden and zoo but there is no separate funding to manage the zoo the central zoo authority which has derecognized the zoo has warned pdkv to either give a financial commitment to operate the zoo or close it downshafi qureshi one of the contractors of meat fish and chicken said i continued the supplies for three months without any payment but now i cannot take it any more and have issued a letter to halt delivery from monday i have to pay my suppliersin april 2021 pdkv took the first step towards making the historic maharajbagh zoo autonomous by forming maharajbagh zoo foundation mzf to overcome the fund crunch hampering its development but mzf is lying defunctthe pdkv executive committee headed by vicechancellor dr vm bhale had cleared the mzf proposal to help the 127yearold zoo to tide over the financial crisis and push for its stagnant developmenttalking to toi dr bhale said we have sent a proposal to the state government to release funds to operate the zoo but there has been no response we managed the zoo despite its closure during the last two years amid covid it is now getting difficult to run the zoo with meagre funds