The historic Sinhagad fort is turning out to be a revenue earner for the Pune division of the State Forest Department. The department has collected Rs 17 lakh in six months as entry fee from vehicles, and by way of the amount charged from visitors carrying plastic items.

On August 15 last year, the forest department started charging an entry fee for visitors’ vehicles and a deposit from those carrying plastic items.

Divisional assistant conservator of forests Ashok Pawar told The Indian Express, “Since vehicular entry fee and the cash deposit for carrying plastic was started, we have collected around Rs 17 lakh. The major chunk has come from the entry fee.”

Pawar added that the rule to charge people carrying plastic objects was not being strictly enforced due to manpower shortage. “There are only five people at the entry toll centre, one each from the five villages around the fort, Sambarewadi, Atkarwadi, Mordari, Donje and Thopatewadi. Since we have a manpower problem, it is difficult to check the plastic articles of each and every visitor,” Pawar said.

The decision to charge Rs 20 from two-wheelers, Rs 50 from four-wheelers and Rs 50 from visitors carrying plastic items to the fort was taken last June. In the first month of the plan, Rs 3.5 lakh was collected.

“Part of the amount collected will be used as salary of volunteers working as security personnel and members of the firefighting squads, who control forest fires around the fort. This corpus will later be used as per the directions of the forest department. Even though the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is providing financial support for development work at the fort, this amount will be kept as a reserve ,” said Pawar.