About Guindy National Park
The Guindy National Park is commonly referred to as the
lungs of Chennai. It has the unique distinction of being one of the only forests
to be located within a metropolitan city. The Guindy National Park is
undoubtedly the lung of the city. The people living around the park know that
the temperature they experience even in summer is lower than that experienced in
other parts of the city.
Like all national parks today,
the Guindy Park was originally a game reserve. It was in 1958 that the area of
400 hectares was handed to the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. Today the National
Park has only 270.57 hectares.
The biodiversity within the
Guindy National Park is quite amazing, despite the fact that it is a very small
area surrounded by houses and habitation. The vegetation is mainly of the
tropical dry evergreen type, and over 350 species of plants have been found
including trees, shrubs, climbers, herbs and grasses. There are large numbers of
Chital and Blackbuck that graze in the open grassland on the northern end of the
park. Nocturnal animals include the toddy cat, civets, jungle cat, pangolin, and
hedgehog. The dense forest, grasslands and water-bodies provide an ideal habitat
for a large species of birds, some not seen anywhere else in Chennai. Apart from
snakes, certain species of tortoise and turtles, lizards, geckos, chameleons and
the common Indian monitor lizard are also found here.
Other than the Guindy National
Park, the Arignar Anna Zoological Park , popularly known as the Vandalur Zoo
(spread over a lush green forest area of about 510 hectares) also acts as a lung
to the city.