Guindy National Park is an important destination for the people of Chennai and Tamil Nadu during festive seasons.It is also is one of the prime visiting spots for those who come to Chennai during vacation period and attracts over three lakh visitors during a season. The Guindy National Park is quite an amazing picnic spot and definitely worth Spending a day out in the lap of nature and wildlife. The Guindy National Park also has a snake park and a children’s park.

The Guindy National Park is located within the city limits of Chennai and is very close to the Raj Bhavan. It is the 8th smallest National Park of India and one of the very few national parks situated inside a city. The Park is well connected and offers excellent opportunities for viewing wildlife. In terms of botanical importance and history, the Guindy National Park is quite interesting as even today it carries derelict vegetation, which is truly representative of the natural thorny scrub of the southern dry zone.

The park with an area of 2.82 sq. km has a strong historical background. Originally a game reserve of 400 hectares, it was owned by Gilbert Rodericks, a British citizen. When Gilbert died, in 1821 the Tamil Nadu government purchased it and the surrounding wooded property for a sum of Rs. 35,000/. The place was declared as reserved forests in 1910. The then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru allotted a portion of the Guindy forest as a park for children. In 1958, it was handed over to the Forest department and in 1978 the entire forest area was declared as Guindy national park.

The Guindy National Park boasts of over 24 varieties of trees, for example, Amona Squamosa, Atlanta Monoplylla, Feronia Limonia, Azadirachta India, etc. to mention a few. Also more than 14 varieties of shrubs, over 14 types of mammals like elephant, antilope, spotted dear, jungle cat, toddy cat, Indian civet, etc.The park also accounts for over 37 varieties of birds, like black chested, black winged kite, honey buzzard, pariah kite, and so on.

Guindy National Park

The Guindy National Park is home to about 400 black bucks, 2000 spotted deer, 24 jackals, a variety of snakes, geckos, a wide variety of snakes tortoises, geckos and over 100 species of birds, over 60 species of butterflies and spiders each, a wealth of different invertebrates-grasshoppers, ants, termites, carbs, snails, slugs, scorpions, mites, spiders, earthworms, millipedes, and more.These are free-ranging fauna and live with the minimal of interference from human beings. The only major management activity is protection as in other in situ conservation area. The park boasts of over 350 species of plants, and form a natural destination for botanists.

The Guindy National Park has dense forest, grasslands and water-bodies which provide an ideal habitat for over 100 species of birds including partridges, pheasants, parrots, quail, paradise fly-catcher, Black-winged kite, Honey Buzzard, Pariah kite and Eagle. Bird watchers anticipate migratory birds here like teals, garganeys, pochards, Medium egrets, large egrets, night herons, pond herons and open-billed storks every fall season.

Enjoy a visit to the Guindy National Park in a city trip to Chennai, India!!!