Flora and fauna of Chennai

Rivers and Lakes

There are two semi-perennial rivers flowing through Chennai, and there are a number of lakes in and around Chennai, most notably Velachery Lake and Pallikaranai Lake.

Beaches

The Marina is the country's longest (and among the world's longest) beach, and its 13-km length is often subdivided into more manageable units. The northern part of the beach (immediately south of the Cooum River) is called the "Marina beach", and is followed by the "San Thome beach", which lies north of the Adyar river estuary. Located onMarina Beach is a famous statue of Mahatma Gandhi.

South of the Adyar, the first section is called "Elliot's beach" or "Besant Nagar beach", and is followed by the "Tiruvanmiyur beach", the "Kottivakkam beach", and the "Neelangarai beach". The beach is visited by most people in the late afternoon and evening, when the sea breeze effect is at its strongest. It is also favoured by joggers at dawn and by couples at night.

Before the Madras Harbour was built, the Marina beach was just a strip of mud, teeming with mudskippers.

Flora and fauna

The Guindy National Park in the south of the city is the country's smallest National Park, with an area of 2.76 km². This is also a rare National Park that is located completely inside a large city. It has a scrub forest and the animals found here include chital and black buck, many species of snakes, birds, insects etc. ^{[http://www.tamilnaduscientists.com/SnakePark/snakepark5.html]} . The adjoining IIT campus also holds many Black buck, Spotted deer, Bonnet monkeys, Palm civets, mongoose, many species of birds, snakes, insects etc. A small deer population also thrives in the nearby Anna University campus. The GNP and the adjoining IIT Madras campus play a vital role in cleaning the city's atmosphere and is several degrees cooler than the city in summer.

The "Arignar Anna Zoological Park" (better known as "Vandalur Zoo") is located southwest of the city and covers an area of 5.1 km². The Zoo was formerly located in Park Town under the name "Madras Zoo", and was the oldest zoo in the country (established 1854 ^{[http://www.cza.nic.in/history.html]} ). It was moved to its current suburban location in 1980. It has about eighty species on display and includes a lion safari and two aviaries.

The southern stretches of the beach, from Tiruvanmiyur to Neelangarai, are favoured by the endangered Olive Ridley turtles to lay their eggs every winter, as are other beaches in Tamil Nadu and Orissa. At that time, many conservation volunteers work on the beach during the night to protect the eggs or to remove them to a hatchery. Hatchlings are usually released to the sea in March or April.

South of the city, along the East Coast Road, is the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, which hosts several fresh-water and salt-water crocodiles, alligators, gharials, and also turtles and snakes. It is considered an important institute for herpetological research, and performs services such as snake venom extraction for preparing antidotes.

A large number of cattle egrets, pond herons and other waterbirds can be seen in the rivers Cooum and Adyar. In addition, the Government of India has plans to classify the Adyar Estuary into a protected eco-system.

Marshy wetlands such as Pallikaranai also play host to a number of migratory birds during the monsoon and winter. Unfortunately, this wetland is being degraded by pollution, garbage dumping and is converted into housing colonies, railway terminus, institutions etc. with utter disregard for its wildlife and ecosystem values.

Over 300 species of birds have been recorded in the city and its neighbourhood by members of Madras Naturalists' Society since its inception in 1978. The society aims at raising awareness among the citizens particularly students on the importance of wildlife in the city and conservation. They have regular meetings every month and publish monthly newsletter and a quarterly journal "Blackbuck". They also organise outings and camps for members.

WildLife

Chennai has the distinction of having the first zoo in India as early as 1855. This was shifted to the Vandalur Reserve Forest in 1979 by the Tamilnadu Forest Department. The zoo is spread over a whopping 510 ha. dry evergreen forests with gentle undulating terrain open wet and dryland type enclosures, specially developed to simulate natural environment for the animals. After the zoo was inaugurated in 1985, it has undergone a lot of improvement, with new animals making their home and breeding and more and more features like the Jurassic Park, Nocturnal section, reptile section, aquarium, etc.

Now there are as many as 81 enclosures – 6 types of deer from barking deer, sambar, blackbuck, Nilgai, Sangai, Hog deer, a number of monkey species from Nilgiri Langur to the endangered Lion-tailed Macaque, Babboon, Hanuman Langur and Leaf-capped Langur, wolf, jackal, hyena, llama, otter, an aviary specially for Vedantangal birds and another for Point Calimere ones, then the higher carnivores like the Tiger, Lion, panther, jaguar, etc. to the elephants, giraffes and camels.

Apart from the range of animal life, there’s plenty of environment info to be picked up by everybody. Near every enclosure, there are stone boards talking about the zoological name, its feeding, mating and breeding habits and seasons apart from the place where it is endemic. And trees have placards with their botanical names and other details.A library is open to public on Mondays and Fridays. The zoo is open 6 days a week from 9-6 PM though ticket sales close an hour earlier, Tuesday being a holiday. For those of you who may find the long trek inside a bit arduous, you can ride on the battery vehicles plying inside, for a fee.Environmental awareness and education form an integral part of the zoo’s activities. They have launced education programmes for students (pre-primary, primary and higher secondary and college) and teachers and other visitors. And now they are having a zoo volunteer program in which anyone who wants to work inside the place can apply.

Apart from this, members of the `Student zoo club’ get valuable experience as they get exposed to adventure while getting educated about wildlife management, conservation, animal behaviour, their habitats, ecosystems, evolution, animal adaptations, reproduction, nutrition, animal housing and husbandry. The membership is open for 2 years for which they also get a certificate. The club currently has about 150 members.

External links

* http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/20/stories/2005072015180300.htm
* http://www.environment.tn.nic.in/Schemes-0506.htm
* http://hsb.iitm.ac.in/~prakriti
* http://www.exnora.org/ac-proj.html
* http://www.india-seminar.com/2004/535/535%20s.%20theodore%20baskaran.htm
* http://www.blackbuck.org.in