Arignar Anna Zoological Park

It’s just a 45mins drive from my home (with Jeevi) to Vandalur along the GST road to explore one of the India’s largest zoological parks, the “Arignar Anna Zoological Park”. This zoological park also known as “Vandalur Zoo” is maintained by Tamil Nadu Forest department. The Zoo is opened throughout the week except on Tuesday and the timings are between 8.30AM to 5.30PM. We reached there by 9.45 Am and got the entrance tickets which cost Rs. 20/- per head. Outside Food and snacks are allowed inside the park, but they say big no to any kind of Polythin covers. In case if we happened to carry any kind of food stuffs within the polythin covers, the staffs over there will force us to transfer them to a paper based container offered by them.

The first and foremost thing we did on entering the Zoo was the LION SAFARI. It costs about Rs. 20/- per head and is served on First come First server basis. The Lion Safari starts from 10AM and is scheduled for every half an hour. It was a 5 mins drive from the entrance to the Safari location in a 12 seater Safari van. The driver, who also acted as the guide gave few interesting info. This place is prohibited for the visitors by walk and the Lions which dwells in the forest visits this place for food and water. In morning, it’s for sure that the lions visit this place for food and this is one of the reasons why this place should be visited in the morning. We were luckier to see couple of lions. In case if we cannot find them here, we have to go deep into the forest to find one. After the lion safari, we thought of exploring the zoo.

There are 3 ways to explore the zoo.

1. Using the Battery operated vehicle

2. Using Bicycle

3. By Walk

Exploring the zoo using the Battery operated vehicle is a 1hr drive through the zoo which hardly stops at 3 places. It costs Rs. 20/- per head and is also served on first come first serve basis. I wouldn’t recommend this, unless you are sick and short of time coz you can’t have a feel of having explored the place. The second best option is using the rented bicycle and the availability depends on the crowd. The best option is exploration by walk, which we choose.

The park has wide variety of Birds, Reptiles and mammals. It also has special infrastructure for Snakes, Aquarium and Nocturnal animal (Night time species). In addition to this, the zoo has exclusive children’s park with play stuffs like seesaw, etc. Though this vast place is reasonably well maintained, it still lacks to provide good drinking water and couple of snacks shop for refreshment. There is a restaurant and snacks shop (organized by Tamilnadu tourism department) located only at the entrance of the shop and hence you should be very conscious before entering the zoo to have enough food and water.

At around 1 PM, we were done with exploring the zoo and by this time the park became crowded. This is the second reason, why we should visit it early. It would require around 3 to 4hrs max to explore the complete Zoo and we did really enjoy the eco-friendly atmosphere offered by the Zoo.

Before signing off, let me put few important tips to visit this place:

1. Start Early and explore the park during the morning session between 9 AM to 1 PM

2. The best way to explore the park is by Walk.

3. Do carry plenty of water, snacks and food.

4. Lion Safari is the highlight of the zoo and never miss it.

Dakshinachitra

Dakshinachitra is the cultural heritage center located on the ECR highway. On 28th September, the last day of dussehra as well as the last day of my long weekend, we (myself and Jeevi) planned to visit Dakshinachitra. We started at around 2.10 PM and reached there at around 2.50PM. It was a pleasant 40 minutes drive from my home (thiruvanmiyur) to the Dakshinachitra in the ECR highway. This place is located just a couple of metres next to MGM Dizzy world theme park.

The entrance fee for this place costs Rs. 75/- per head and a small mini map is provided along with the ticket to explore the place. We soon realized that this place is meant to reflect the culture and lifestyle of the south-indians during the ancient period. This Heritage center is broadly divided into four regions Kerala, TamilNadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. There are model houses built in each region in their style. Inside each model house, there are arts, photos, idols, articles, jewels, clothes etc used in ancient period are put on display.

Though Kerala and Tamilnadu regions are very impressive and have a lot of infrastructure, the Karnataka and the Andhra Pradesh regions are still under construction. At each structure, there are some activities performed like grinding rice using ancient grinding equipments, Pottery, Puppet making using paper, glass blower etc. In addition to this, the Heritage center consists of an art gallery, Library, Restaurant and Craft shop. The art gallery and library available are not very impressive; the Library has very few books. The art gallery has photos of our ancient Chennai and rare paintings. Through one of the employee over there, we came to know that there are dance classes and special programs conducted on the Sunday and there are guest house facilities available in this place for a nominal price.

Though I wouldn’t recommend anyone to visit this place with friends, but it’s really a good place to hang around with family. This place could be more informative and fun for a foreigner, who is unaware of Indian culture rather than for a south Indian like me. For some reason or the other, jeevi was really impressed with this Place. After spending around two and half hours at this place, we started back to home at 5.40 PM.

On way back home, we thought to visit the ISKON temple. The ISKON also known as “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” temple is located opposite to VGP Golden Beach at the ECR. This temple is under construction. Since it was too dark, I couldn’t get a better picture of the place. Since the place is located a KM interior to the ECR highway and the way is not safe to be visited during night, we left the place early and reached home safely at around 7 PM.