Sunday, March 01, 2020

Visit to Amirthi Zoological Park, near Vellor

Two weeks before, I visited the Amirthi Zoological Park in the vicinity of Amirthi forest on the foot of Jawadhu Hills, near Vellore.  Though the zoological park comes under Tiruvannamalai district, the Vellore city is closer by 25 kms.  I was planning to visit the park for last few years, and when I made a visit to Balamathi Hills, adjacent to Vellore city in Feb 2018, I couldn’t make up to the park due to lack of time and I too did not want the visit to be a hurried one.


I learned the zoological park is accessible by wheelchairs and visiting a park in the forest environment could never miss out of my pocket, because I’m someone always enjoy visiting forest and stay close to nature. We started the trip from home (Chennai) at 8am and get there by 12.30 pm, meanwhile stopping the car for breakfast and buying lunch (biryani) at Arcot, and the route from there was scenic and beautiful as it took us through mountains and countryside scenes.


'The Arcot – Kannamangalam is the best and shortest route to reach Amirthi for people coming from Chennai; and Arcot is the right place to buy food stuffs because there's nothing available at Amirthi, even though there’s a canteen run by the forest department, outside the zoological park, we could not expect anything surely. They don’t allow carrying foods inside the park, so we had our lunch at the parking lot and there are slabs to sit around the trees to have lunch but there’s lot of monkeys and stray dogs to cause fear.

Indian pond turtles
Amirthi is a small zoological park, developed on 25 hectares of forest land, which covers 25 km of forest, made as a wildlife sanctuary and tourist spot the other half. The park opened in 1967 has minimum number of animals and birds and during my visit I found many empty cages to make me disappoint.  The zoological park seemed to be renovated lately or the works haven't finished yet, as many cages left with a note of under repair; the park is well paved to reach every corner of the park without difficult and it helps to take closer looks at animals and birds in cage. 

Python relaxing at its room
I saw Indian pond turtles inside a glass tank and Golden fox in a den like setting, roaming alone sadly.  There’s a section for snakes with a series of glass rooms but only a python and Russell’s viper is available to see, while other rooms are empty. I saw a sign board at the park, warning people on snakes since the park is located in the vicinity of forest snakes are supposed to wander freely on the campus.  Mongooses are enclosed in a room next to snakes and porcupines in another small cage, peacocks, pelicans and herons are put in subsequence cages.

Golden Fox (see on the right) in its cage
 Pelicans and herons
There are many colourful images of animals, birds and reptiles painted on the walls inside and outside of the park captured our attention. The park, established in a forest land makes feel its presence though the number of trees that exist from the forest environment had made a natural canopy throughout the park to make feel always cool and shady. Amirthi zoological park could be a best picnic place for family and friends to spend a day on natural environment and shadows, apart watching animals.


Amirthi is a very small zoo where you could not expect more; even the children’s park in Chennai has more animals to attract visitors. Apart the park, there’s a seasonal waterfalls about a km from here which had to be reached by trekking. The best time to visit the park is from September to February to make use of more greenery and to enjoy the waterfalls and river run beside the park, but even on midsummer you won’t be feel the weather once entered the forest environment.


I really enjoyed the place despite being a Sunday; there weren’t much people around the park and only at the time of leaving found a bus full of school kids having lunch at the parking lot. Staffs at the park were kind to inquire about my convenient there, and was I able to go everywhere? The only thing that bothers me was to see fewer animals than expected. Though I don’t like seeing birds or animals in enclosed cages while they have wing to fly and legs to run… I’m at least happy to see them because even if we go to forest seeing them is doubt. 


I took many photos and I can't post all at a time here... so my future posts will carry those.

13 comments:

Bob Bushell said...

Love the site of the Zoo, nice and quiet.

Bill said...

Your visit to the zoological park looked like fun. It's too bad that there weren't more animals to see. I haven't visited a zoo in decades. Thanks for sharing your trip and I look forward in seeing more of your photos.
Have a wonderful evening, Jeevan.

Sandi said...

It is such a beautiful place.

Rose said...

I bet that was a treat to be able to go and see...I wish all the animals would have been there. Maybe when the repairs are done you can go back.

Kirtivasan Ganesan said...

Can you describe the word "Amirthi" ? Its meaning, usage etc.

ashok said...

Looks like u had a good time

Twilight Man said...

I could see how you enjoyed the place without all the big crowds. Even the animals would be happier in the peaceful environment.

eileeninmd said...

Hello,

Most zoo seem to be in need of money, for upkeep and repairs. It is nice to see the animals up close, but it can be sad to see them in cages. I am glad you could make your way around to see the zoo exhibits and animals. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post.
Enjoy your day, wishing you a happy new week! PS, thank you for your visit and comment on my blog.

George said...

I'm glad you were able to visit this park and am happy it is wheelchair-accessible. It's just too bad that there were so many empty cages.

carol l mckenna said...

Jeevan ~ good to see you out and about and thanks for sharing your zoo visit with neat photos ^_^

Happy Moments to You,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

Lady Fi said...

Looks lovely!

Tom said...

...it's good to hear of the caring people at the zoo.

Nancy Chan said...

Its been a long time since I last visited the zoo. Looks like a nice outing to the zoo.