Guindy National Park Chennai

Guindy National Park Chennai

Guindy National Park, the 8^th smallest National Park of India and one of the national parks situated inside the city. Since the park houses Raj Bhavan, the official residence of Governor of Tamil Nadu, it is also a protected area as it extends deep inside the governor’s estate, enclosing beautiful forests, scrub lands, lakes and streams.

The park has a role in both ex-situ and in-situ conservation and it is habitat to 400 blackbucks, 2,000 spotted deers, 24 jackals, a wide variety of snakes, geckos, tortoises and over 130 species of birds, 14 species of mammals, over 60 species of butterflies and spiders. A wealth of different invertebrates- such as grasshoppers, ants, termites, crabs, snails, slugs, scorpions, mites, earthworms, millipedes etc. These are free-ranging fauna and live with the minimal of interference from human beings.

This Park was initially a game reserve. In the early 1670s, a garden space was fixed out of the Guindy forest and a residence called the Guindy Lodgewas built by Governor William Langhorne making St Thomas Mount a decent place for rest and recreation.

Guindy Snake Park, once the location of Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, is next to the Guindy National Park. The Snake Park in Chennai gained statutory acknowledgment as a medium zoo from the Central Zoo Authority in 1995.

The major managing activity is the matter of protection as in any other in-situ conservation area. The park attracts more than 700,000 visitors every year.