Friday, November 25, 2011

The Green Lungs of Chennai


There probably isn't another place within a bustling metropolis in India which is some three square kilometers and a national park! Guindy National Park in Chennai is a rare occurrence indeed, one which is a shining example of human-nature co-existence at its peaceful best.

I suspect wildlife of the future will be concentrated only within tiny pockets, such as these, which will beg to survive alongside human habitation. Given the enormous pressure commercialization and modernization seem to be exerting on natural biodiversity, it does not take an intelligent guess to estimate the future of these wonderful expanses of exquisitely rare beauty.

Having visited the adjoining areas of the park over the past weekend, I was compelled to draw a small parallel to the outskirts of Ooty.

Footnotes:

Once covering an area of 5 sq kms (1.93 sq mi) of one of the last remnants of tropical dry evergreen forest of the Coromandel Coast, Guindy Park was originally a game reserve. It was owned by a British citizen named Gilbert Rodericks from whom it was purchased by the government in 1821 for a sum of  Rs. 35,000. It was established as a Reserve Forest in 1910 - Sourced from Wikipedia.

Picture taken by me during the stroll. 

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