Over 4.50 lakh tourists visited Jammu’s Bagh-e-Bahu fish aquarium last year

Jammu, Srinagar 19: Over 4.50 lakh tourists across the world visited the fish-shaped Bagh-e-Bahu Aquarium which is located in Jammu. Notably, the Bagh-e-Bahu Aquarium has been titled as the largest underground aquarium in the country. 

An official of the fisheries department on Sunday said that over 4.53 lakh tourists Bagh-e-Bahu Aquarium in the year 2017 generating a total revenue of over Rs 1.70 crore. “Besides students, the aquarium has become a centre of attraction for tourists, giving them an opportunity to revel in the exotic aquatic world,” he added.

However, four lakh people visited the aquarium during 2016-17. The fish-shaped aquarium has 24 aquarium caves that further incorporate 13 small caves containing fresh-water fish apart from those with marine-water fish. It also has state-of-the-art equipment, a public gallery, museum, laboratory and a multimedia conference hall.

The entrance of aquarium is designed in the shape of the mouth of a fish and the exit looks like a fishtail. The facility also houses a museum where 400 varieties of freshwater and marine fish are on display. Apart from looking at the fish, tourists can also explore the multimedia centre, the public gallery, and the laboratory promoting aquatic awareness.

On the other side, over 2.5 lakh tourists and pilgrims visited Jammu and Kashmir in the last three years. While 92,03,690 tourists and pilgrims visited the state in 2015, as many as 93,34,600 arrived in 2016 and 78,72,377 in 2017. Of them, 2,15,46,404 pilgrims visited the cave shrine of Mata Vaishnodevi in last three years besides 8,23,842 pilgrims to Amarnath during the same period.