If you all have seen the big amphibians, reptiles and a vast collection of different animals? photograph in any of the websites briefing about the Guindy National Park and you propose to plan an essential spree to the Guindy National Park the next time you visit Chennai, then I tell you dear friends, you are certainly going to have a great great disillusionment in your life !!!!!
If someone has promised you that the Guindy National Park at Chennai is a prime visiting spot and a must-see for the tourists, then the person must be cheating you !!!! Being a Chennaitie, am I mis-propaganding about the Guindy Park? Just read on and you would come to know how this National Park has deteriorated with passing times !!
Guindy National Park
It is called ?Guindy National Park? because it is situated in an area called ?Guindy? at Chennai. The Guindy National Park, which has a very deep historic background and considered a hunting preserve long long ago so long ago, was purchased by the Government of Madras from a British Citizen named Gilbert Rodricks in the early 19th century.
The place was actually just a forest and later declared as reserved forests which subsequently became the permanent residence of the Government and named as RAJ BHAVAN. The then Prime Minister NehruJee organized a portion of the forests as the play park for the children. So actually the entire Forest area had been segregated into some of the following popular areas :
? Gandhi Mandapam
? Guru Nanak Educational society
? Rajaji Memorial
? Kamaraj Memorial and the
? Cancer Institute
This Guindy Park earlier possessed more than 30 varieties of rare trees and exceptional shrubs and a lot of animals like Elephant, different variety of dears, the Jungle Cats, Antelopes, Cheetas etc. Added to this collection, were the poisonous as well as water Snakes. But this Guindy Park was then segregated into Snake Park and the Children?s Park.
The days of my parents taking me and my sister to this Park still remains evergreen in my memory. I still remember, when we were kids, my dad used to assure us of a trip to the Guindy Park provided we do our exams well ( of course he used to take us well before we receive our results ??. Hee hee hee hee ). The entrance fee to the Park used to be very very low, it used to be Rs. 2/- per head & every parent would compulsorily spend one day of the kid?s summer holidays at Guindy Park. Also, in those days the only Theme Park available near Chennai was the VGP Golden Beach which charged a comparatively expensive entry fee of Rs.50/- per head.
As soon as you enter the Guindy Park, there are lot of stalls on either side, selling plastic toys for children, cool & hot drinks, women?s footwear etc. Of course, really nothing is that worth purchasing. May be just to console your crying children, you could get them some toys. As for any eating place inside the Park, you really don?t have any !!! So, please take your outside food to the Park.
The Park used to have the black buck, chital, jackal, pangolin and the reptile section had a very good collection of snakes. There is no separate entry fee to the Snake Park. There used to be a large hippo which would be placed isolated from other creatures.
If I rightly remember, until the days when I was in my 9th standard or so, I used to really enjoy my every visit to the Guindy Park with my family members, just due to the fact that it used to be real fun to watch the number of love birds, parrots, elephants (there were two at that time), the varieties of the Avi Fauna which were our favourites and we could just run and run and run around the entire park without being disallowed by the parents.
The Present Condition of the National Park :
At present, they charge a very reasonable entry fee of Rs.5/-. In today?s condition, the Park does not possess as many animals it used to contain earlier. Now all you could find here are, a few varieties of birds which occupy most of the cages here and there, three or four spotted dears (earlier there used to be almost 30 to 35) and a meager number of cross breeds of Chimpanzees and monkeys.
The Snake Park does have a higher number of snakes but it certainly is not that interesting. These days, it is an undeniable fact that the Guindy Park has become the place for the young lovers (some of them are really spoiling the place and a great nuisance to the visiting families) and the gangs of the nearby college youths found excessively here.
Nowadays you wouldn?t be even able to see any greeneries anywhere in the Park. In fact presently the Park only has dry plants & insalubrious trees (not even providing you shelter against the hottest temperature of Chennai). But at least the sways and the See-Saw are a great soothes for the children.
Whether you are going to have a good time at the Park or not, definitely the children could run around the vast area with their playmates. Hey?? you all too could enjoy in the Park?s vast area, just a roaming throughout the Park would take a solid 3 hours for you and is walking not a good exercise for you ???