The National Zoological Park, New Delhi

It’s been really long since I last visited a Zoo before a brief visit to the National Zoological Park in Delhi. I briefly remember visiting the Jijamata Zoo in Bombay as a little kid. One of those times when your parents feel it’s absolutely necessary for you to have a pictorial description of the animals you read about in your books.

I have been in Delhi for well over a year now and one of the days when I could think of nothing better to do I decided to visit the Zoo.

I looked up for the zoo on Google map and was quite delighted to know how close it was to where I currently reside and the fact that such vast expanse of land could be available in the heart of the city. The National Zoological Park (NZP) is located near Purana Qilla.

This blog would be my honest opinions about the Zoo. By honest I mean if you think I have too many complaints spare me please.

I took me barely 20 minute in the auto to get to the Zoo. I thought of taking some grains along with me for the animals, but it totally slipped out of my mind. The good thing was outside food is strictly prohibited in the zoo premises and so is feeding the animals.

Before entering the zoo you need to buy yourself a ticket which is a bare minimal fee. Still photography is free of cost but if you plan to shoot with a professional video camera you have to declare the same and pay the fees accordingly.

I did my homework quite well before going to the zoo. I was awe struck by the number of animal and bird species that are present in the zoo, but not-to-my surprise I didn’t quite get to see as many animals as the numerous websites claim the Zoo has.

Some of the animals and birds that I did spot include the cranes, doves, elephants, quite a lot of species of deer’s, Sambar, black bucks, crocodiles, alligators, birds whose names I don’t quite remember, bears, a tiger and a lion.

I was quite interested in having a closer look at the lions and tigers but I didn’t quite get to see them well. The lion was so far away that I had to zoom in with the camera to actually see the tiger.

What you should check out is the small souvenir shops near the ticket counter which sells small interesting things you could collect for your own house or buy as a gift for someone you know.

There are quite a lot of maps inside the Zoo that are meant to give you directions of the location of the animals in the zoo. I would like to point out that most of them are in Hindi and my Hindi is quite bad. Since I dint have much time on my hand coupled with the bad management of the Zoo I had a difficult time finding the Lions and the tigers. Every time I thought of asking around for directions there was no staff around me and the few people who seemed to be working in the zoo dint seem to have an idea at all.

There are numerous small stalls which sell snacks and drinks inside the zoo premise near the gate, but I dint quite have the appetite to taste any food so I would not be fair on my path to comment about the same.

You could either have a tour of the zoo on foot or by one of the battery operated vehicles that take you around the zoo. I would recommend walking since you get your own sweet time to spot the animals and take some great pictures.

The zoo is a part of the Central Zoo Authorities conservation breeding program which breeds animals like the Bengal tiger, swamp deer, red jungle fowl and the Asiatic Lions and many more animals. The animals that breed here are later circulated to other zoos across India.

All in all If you are really looking forward to seeing a lot of animals you would be a little disappointed, but it still is one of the places you should visit someday.

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