THIMMIRI RAVEENDRA at 21:17, 22 February 2026

2026-02-22T21:17:17Z

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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=May 2018}}
{{short description|National park in Tamil Nadu, India}}
{{Infobox protected area
| name = Guindy National Park
| alt_name =
| iucn_category = II
| image = Guindy_national_park.jpg
| image_alt =
| image_caption = Guindy National Park entrance
| image_size =
| map = India Tamil Nadu#India
| map_alt =
| map_caption = Location in Chennai, India
| map_width =
| relief = 1
| mapframe = Yes
| location = [[Chennai District|Chennai]], [[Tamil Nadu]], [[India]]
| nearest_city = [[Chennai]]
| coordinates = {{coords|13.0036|N|80.2293|E|display=inline, title}}
| area_km2 = 2.7057
| established = 1977
| visitation_num = 700,000
| visitation_year = 2006<ref>{{cite web|title=Guindy National Park|publisher=Tamil Nadu Forest Department|url=http://www.forests.tn.nic.in/WildBiodiversity/np_gnp.html|access-date=6 Sep 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120928004229/http://www.forests.tn.nic.in/WildBiodiversity/np_gnp.html|archive-date=2012-09-28 }}</ref>
| governing_body = Tamil Nadu Forest Department
| url = {{URL|www.forests.tn.nic.in/WildBiodiversity/np_gnp.html|forests.tn.nic.in}}
}}
'''Guindy National Park''' is a [[Protected areas of Tamil Nadu|protected area]], located in [[Chennai]], India. Spread across {{convert|2.70|km2|abbr=on|2}}, it is one of the smallest [[National parks of India|National Parks in India]] and one of the few national parks situated inside a [[metropolitan area]]. The park is an extension of the grounds surrounding [[Raj Bhavan, Chennai|Raj Bhavan]], the official residence of the [[Governor of Tamil Nadu]] and encloses forests, scrub lands, lakes and streams.

The park has a role in both [[ex-situ conservation|''ex situ'']] and [[in-situ conservation|''in situ'']] conservation and is home to a variety of species including a wide variety of [[snakes]], [[geckos]], [[tortoises]], over 130 species of birds, 14 species of mammals including 400 [[blackbuck]]s, 2,000 [[spotted deer]], 24 [[jackals]], over 60 species of [[butterflies]] and [[spiders]] each and other [[invertebrate]]s. These are free-ranging fauna that live with minimal interference from human beings. [[Chennai Snake Park Trust|Guindy Snake Park]], formerly the location of [[Madras Crocodile Bank Trust]] and Children's Park are located next to the park in the same premises. As of 2007, the parks had 700,000 annual visitors.

== History ==
Covering an area of {{convert|5|km2|abbr=on|2}}, the park was one of the last remnants of [[East Deccan dry evergreen forests|tropical dry evergreen forest]] along the [[Coromandel Coast]] and was originally a [[game reserve]]. In the early 1670s, a garden space was carved out of the area and a residence called the ''Guindy Lodge'' was built by Governor [[Sir William Langhorne, 1st Baronet|William Langhorne]] (1672–1678) for recreation. The remaining of the forest area was owned by Gilbert Rodericks, from whom it was purchased by the [[Madras Presidency|Government of Madras]] in 1821 for a sum of {{INR}} 35,000. The original area of {{cvt|505|ha}} was established as a [[Reserve Forest]] in 1910.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/sportswomaninind00savorich|title=A Sportswoman in India|last=Savory|first=Isabel|publisher=London, Hutchinson & Co.; Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Company|year=1900|location=The Library of the University of California|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sportswomaninind00savorich/page/373 373]}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3ADictionary_of_National_Biography%2C_Second_Supplement%2C_volume_2.djvu/245|title=Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, Volume 2|last=Woods|first=Gabriel Stanley|date=1912}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Havelock,_Arthur_Elibank_(DNB12)|title=Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement|last=Woods|first=Gabriel Stanley}}</ref>

Between 1961 and 1977, about {{cvt|172|ha}} of the forest, was transferred to various government departments in order to build educational institutions and memorials.<ref name="Chital"/> In 1958, a portion of the forest area was transferred to the Union Education Ministry for establishing the [[Indian Institute of Technology, Madras]] (IIT). In the same year, a portion of the land was transferred to the [[Tamil Nadu Forest Department]] for creating the Guindy Deer Park and Children's Park under the direction of then [[Prime Minister of India]], [[Jawaharlal Nehru]]. Memorials for [[Rajaji]] and [[Kamaraj]] were built in 1974 and 1975, respectively, from parcels of land acquired from the reserve. In 1977, the remaining forest area was transferred to the Forest Department and in 1978, it was declared a national park. It was walled off from the adjacent Raj Bhavan and IIT Madras in the late 1980s.<ref name="Raman"/>

== Habitat ==
[[File:Guindy National Park, Chennai.jpg|thumb|Inside the park]]
The Guindy National Park had historically enjoyed a certain degree of protection and was one of the last remnants of the natural habitats that typify the natural range of plant and animal [[biodiversity]] of the Coromandel coastal plains in the northeastern Tamil Nadu.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Menon|first=R. K. G.|title=The Guindy National Park: Its history and physiogeography|journal=Blackbuck|volume=2|issue=1|pages=14–21|year=1986|url=http://blackbuck.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/guindynationalpark.pdf|access-date=21 Jul 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Rapid Assessment of Biodiversity on the Campus of Indian Institute of Technology–Madras|pages=1–64|publisher=The Director, Indian Institute of Technology–Madras|date=August 2006|url=http://www.iitm.ac.in/images/stories/iitm/Campus%20Biodiversity%20Report.pdf|access-date=9 Aug 2009}}</ref> The park has a tropical climate with mean annual temperatures of {{cvt|32.9|°C}} (maximum) and {{cvt|24.3|°C}} (minimum). Rainfall ranges from {{cvt|522|mm}} to {{cvt|2135|mm}}, with an average annual rainfall of {{cvt|1215|mm}}. The summer season in April and May determines the peculiar vegetation of the coast. Between June and December, wet season prevails, with dry season occurring between January and March. The area also has a cleared meadow called Polo Field measuring about {{cvt|230|m}} by {{cvt|160|m}} and a lake known as the 'Tangal Eri'.<ref name="Chital"/> The presence of the park and the surrounding green areas resulted in the epithet ''the green lungs of Chennai''. The park is protected by a perimeter wall for a length of {{cvt|9.5|km}}. There is an extensive network of roads and trails. The road network covers about {{cvt|14|km}} within the park. The park has two large tanks, namely, Kathan Kollai and Appalam Kolam, in addition to two ponds, which usually dry up during summer.<ref name="Chital">{{cite journal|last=Shankar Raman |first=T. R.|author2=R. K. G. Menon|author3=R. Sukumar|title=Ecology and Management of Chital and Blackbuck in Guindy National Park, Madras|journal=Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society|volume=93|issue=2|pages=178–192|year=1996|url=http://blackbuck.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/raman-menon-sukumar-jbnhs.pdf|access-date=21 Jul 2012}}</ref>

== Flora ==
The park has a [[East Deccan dry evergreen forests|dry evergreen scrub]] and [[Deccan thorn scrub forests|thorn forest]], grasslands and water bodies with over 350 species of plants including shrubs, climbers, herbs and grasses and over 24 variety of trees, including the [[Annona squamosa|sugar-apple]], ''[[List of Rutaceae genera|Atlantia monophylla]]'', [[Feronia limonia|wood-apple]], and [[Azadirachta indica|neem]]. The region's physiognomy occurs as discontinuous or dense scrub-woodlands and thickets, containing species such as introduced ''Acacia planifrons'', ''Clausena dentata'' shrubs, palmyrah palm (''[[Borassus flabellifer]]''), ''Randia dumetorum'', ''Randia malabarica'', ''[[Carissa spinarum]]'', ''[[Acacia chundra]]'', exotic cactus ''Cereus peruviana'' and ''Glycosmis mauritiana''.{{cn|date=October 2025}} This flora provides an ideal habitat for over 150 species of birds. About one-sixth of the park has been left as open grassland to preserve that habitat for blackbucks. Though both the species of blackbuck and spotted deer have their natural habitat in grassland, the spotted deer prefer bushes and can adjust in land covered with shrubbery.{{cn|date=October 2025}}

==Fauna==
[[File:Deer at Guindy National Park.jpg|thumb|Wandering deer at the park]]
[[File:Guindy national park 09 Rosy Pelican.jpg|thumb|Pelican at Guindy national park]]

There are over 14 species of mammals including [[blackbuck]], [[chital]], [[jackal]], [[small Indian civet]], [[common palm civet]], [[bonnet macaque]], [[hyena]], [[pangolin]], [[hedgehog]], [[common mongoose]], [[Indian palm squirrel]], and [[Indian hare]] apart from several species of [[bats]] and [[rodents]]. The [[near threatened]] blackbuck, considered as the flagship species of the park, was introduced in 1924 by [[Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon|Freeman Freeman-Thomas]].<ref name="rj">{{cite journal|author1=R. J. Ranjit Danials|author2=C. Arivazhagan|year=2008|title=The Indian blackbuck recovers from the brink of extinction in Chennai, India|journal=Oryx|publisher=Fauna & Flora International|volume=42|issue=4|pages=481–488|doi=10.1017/S0030605308423141|doi-access=free}}</ref> Albino male blackbucks were also introduced to the park by the Maharaja of Bhavnagar.<ref name="Chital"/> While the blackbuck population has seen a decline, the chital population has increased in the last century. As per the census conducted on 29 February 2004, there were 405 blackbucks.(including 10 in the IIT campus), and 2,650 chitals including 1,743 females and 336 fawns.<ref name="Chital"/><ref name="Raman">{{cite journal|last=T. R. S.|first=Raman|author2=R. K. G. Menon|author3=R. Sukumar|year=1995|title=Decline of blackbuck (''Antilope cervicapra'') in an insular nature reserve—Guindy National Park|url=http://www.ias.ac.in/j_archive/currsci/68/6/578-580/viewpage.html|url-status=dead|journal=Current Science|volume=68|issue=6|pages=578–580|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050314110433/https://www.ias.ac.in/j_archive/currsci/68/6/578-580/viewpage.html|archive-date=14 March 2005}}</ref>

The park has over 150 species of birds including [[grey partridge]], [[crow pheasant]], [[parrot]], [[quail]], [[Indian paradise flycatcher|paradise flycatcher]], [[black-winged kite]], [[crested honey buzzard|honey buzzard]], [[black kite|pariah kite]], [[golden-backed woodpecker]], [[yellow-wattled lapwing]], [[red-wattled lapwing]], [[blue-faced malkoha]], [[shrikes]], [[Asian koel]], [[minivets]], [[munias]], [[parakeet]], [[tailor bird]], [[American robin|robin]], [[drongo]], and [[stone curlew]]. Bird watchers anticipate migratory birds here like [[teal]]s, [[garganey]]s, [[red-crested pochard|pochard]]s, [[intermediate egret|medium egret]]s, [[great egret|large egrets]], [[night heron]]s, [[pond heron]]s and [[Asian open-billed stork|open-billed stork]]s every fall season.<ref>{{cite news|last=Oppili|first=P.|title=Looking for exotic species at the Guindy National Park|location=Chennai|date=16 November 2004|url=http://www.hindu.com/2004/11/16/stories/2004111612840300.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041206100821/http://www.hindu.com/2004/11/16/stories/2004111612840300.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 December 2004|newspaper=[[The Hindu]]|access-date=14 May 2007}}</ref> The park is home to about nine species of [[amphibians]]<ref name="Chital"/> There park hosts [[reptiles]] such [[saw-scaled viper]], [[Sitana ponticeriana|fan-throated lizard]], and [[Bengal monitor|Indian monitor lizard]]. There are other species of [[lizard]]s, [[gecko]]s, [[chameleon]]s, [[turtles]], and [[tortoises]] including the [[endangered]] [[Indian star tortoise]]. There are a large variety of insects including 60 species of [[spiders]] and 60 species of [[butterflies]].{{cn|date=October 2025}}

== Snake park and children's park==
[[File:Guindy national park Painted Stork.jpg|thumb|A painted stork in the park]]
[[Chennai Snake Park Trust|Guindy Snake Park]], formerly the location of [[Madras Crocodile Bank Trust]], is next to the Guindy National Park. The Snake Park gained statutory recognition as a medium zoo from the [[Central Zoo Authority of India|Central Zoo Authority]] in 1995. The park is located on an {{cvt|22|acre|ha}} area of the National Park and includes a children's park and play area. The park displays [[king cobra]], [[Pythonidae|python]]s, [[Viperidae|viper]]s and other reptiles, animals such as black buck, [[sambar (deer)|sambar]], spotted deer, [[porcupine]], jackal, [[crocodile]], [[otter|common otter]], [[rhesus monkey]], [[Macaca radiata|bonnet monkey]] and [[common langur]] and birds including [[Pelecanus philippensis|grey pelican]], night heron, [[cormorant]], [[cockatiel]], [[parrot]], [[mongoose]], [[common peafowl]]. The children's park also exhibits a fossilized tree specimen which is estimated to be about 20 million years old and has a statue of a [[Tyrannosaurus]] at the entrance.<ref name="EcoSpots">{{cite news|last=Padmanabhan|first=Geeta|title=Chennai's eco spots|newspaper=[[The Hindu]]|location=Chennai|date=9 January 2012|url=http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/leisure/article2787737.ece|access-date=9 Jan 2012}}</ref> In December 2019, an [[augmented reality]] (AR) show with a capacity of 20 persons was opened to public.<ref>{{cite news|title=AR show a new attraction at Guindy Children's Park|newspaper=[[The Hindu]]|location=Chennai|pages=3|date=27 December 2019|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/ar-show-a-new-attraction-at-guindy-childrens-park/article30405978.ece|access-date=28 December 2019}}</ref>

== Location and access==
Entry into this protected reserve is restricted, and visitors can go into the core area only when escorted by a forest ranger from the Forest Department.<ref>{{cite web|last=Appasamy|first =David|title =Guindy National Park: National Treasure|publisher= Metroblogging Chennai|date=21 April 2006|url=http://chennai.metblogs.com/archives/2006/04/guindy_national_park_national.phtml|access-date=9 Jun 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070307115307/http://chennai.metblogs.com/archives/2006/04/guindy_national_park_national.phtml|archive-date=7 March 2007}}</ref> The children's park and the snake park have separate entrances from [[Sardar Patel Road, Chennai|Sardar Patel Road]] next to the [[Adyar Cancer Institute]] and independent entry fees. The parks are open from 9 AM to 6 PM on all days except Tuesday. The nearest railway stations are the [[Kasturba Nagar MRTS station]] on [[Chennai MRTS]], [[Guindy railway station]] on the [[Chennai Suburban Railway]] and [[Guindy metro station]] on the [[Chennai Metro]].<ref name="EcoSpots"/>

==See also==
{{commons category}}
* [[Arignar Anna Zoological Park]]
* [[Birding in Chennai]]
* [[Parks in Chennai]]
* [[Chennai Snake Park Trust]]
* [[Madras Crocodile Bank Trust]]
* [[Marine Kingdom]]
* [[Pulicat Lake Bird Sanctuary]]
{{Portal bar|India|Geography|Environment}}

== References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071102045840/http://www.forests.tn.nic.in/Ecotourism/enquiryforall.php Tamil Nadu Forest Department]

{{National Parks of India}}
{{Protected areas of Tamil Nadu}}
{{Chennai Topics}}

[[Category:National parks in Tamil Nadu]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in Chennai]]
[[Category:Protected areas established in 1977]]
[[Category:Parks in Chennai]]
[[Category:Urban forests in India]]
[[Category:1977 establishments in Tamil Nadu]]

Guindy National Park - Revision history

THIMMIRI RAVEENDRA at 21:17, 22 February 2026