National park

The Guindy National Park is stretched in the city premises of Chennai. The park is the only of its kind to be located within the city suburbs. Guindy National Park lies in the southern outskirts of Chennai city, at a place called Adyar. The park is situated close to the Governor's House (Raj Bhavan).
The Guindy National Park used to be a game reserve till 1817. The place was bought by a British citizen named Gilbert Rodericks who died in the year 1817. Rodericks could not pay his debts while he was alive and had his property mortgaged. In the year 1821, the Government of Madras purchased the park lands. The next development came in the year 1947 when the place got established as the Governor's Residence.

The park area was handed over to the Tamil Nadu Forest Department which at that time constituted 400 hectares. The nearby area was allocated to IIT (1961), Guru Nanak Educational Society (1970), Rajaji Memorial (1974), Kamaraj Memorial (1975) and Cancer Institute (1977). The current park area stands close to 280 hectares. Royal Chitwan National Park is one of the most important sub-tropical parks on the Indian subcontinent with good populations of the endangered Royal Bengal tiger, Greater One-horned rhinos, Gangetic dolphin (Platanista gangetica), Wild Asian elephant, Gaur, Golden Monitor lizard, Gharial crocodile and many more. The park is situated in the flat lowland region of southern Nepal, just close to the Indian International boundary.
For many years the Royal Chitwan Park was the Royal hunting grounds for the Kings and dignitaries of Nepal. In the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries AD, the park becomes a favorite destination for big game safari hunters. The long-term hunting led to a drastic decrease in jungle populations in the Chitwan valley. The falling number of rhinos and tigers in the present park region, focused attention on the Chitwan region and in 1963 the southern two-thirds of the park were declared as a Rhino Sanctuary. With the sanctuary status came a moratorium on hunting and the relocation of 22,000 people from the Chitwan valley. Since 1963 wildlife populations and ecosystems have been rebounding in this area. In 1973 Chitwan became Nepal’s first National Park. The unique ecosystems prompted UNESCO to declare the park a World Heritage site in 1984.