After a good night sleep I was woken up with fresh breeze which took away all my tiredness. We had an authentic Tamilian breakfast from the hotel and left to our next destination, yet again a park, yes my love for animals and trees is never ending. Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Chennai, located within the city limits, was the next in our itinerary.
We reached the park in less than 45 minutes which is located in Vandalur, hence the park is also known as ‘Vandalur Zoo’. The zoo is officially named after the famous Tamil politician Aringar Anna. The zoological park is the oldest public zoo in the country dating back 1855 spread over an area of almost 1500 acres which includes a rehabilitation and rescue centre within the park. We hired a local guide for better navigation in the zoo who proudly said that the zoo boasts of more than 1500 species of animals including mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, insects and fishes. He added that many animals in the zoo were endangered and kept under special supervision. We took our entrance tickets and entered the majestic zoo with our digital cameras.
Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Chennai has clean and well maintained pathways covered with trees along its path. The park also consists of a beautiful lake named as Otteri located in the north western part of the park. As I took a stroll in the park I saw some gorgeous wildlife ranging from Lion, Elephant, Deer, Monkeys and large variety of deer. The park is also home to lovely birds including night heron, cormorants, egrets, dabchicks, open bill stork, white ibis moorhen etc whose chirping was quite soothing to my ears. I found dense vegetation in the park which supports more than fifty species of Butterflies. There are three separate parks for Lion, Gaur and Deer which have been created on a hilly terrain.
Arignar Anna Zoological Park, Chennai has many enclosures with huge gates with the park’s name embedded on the main entrance. I took photographs as much as my camera could handle and left the park by afternoon to our next and last destination, the Government Museum in Chennai.