Famed SV Zoo Park entertains visitors

If visiting any zoo park is an amazing opportunity for people of any age group to get cheered up, the visitors to Sri Venkateswara Zoological park may get more entertainment and knowledge, thanks to its mythological theme. This theme highlights the role of wild animals in ancient scriptures and even the enclosures are named like Kishkindha Vanam, Mareecha Vanam and Iravatham among others.

Established in 1987 it was thrown open for visitors on April 30, 1993. Located at the abode of Lord Venkateswara, this largest zoo in Asia in terms of area is spread in a sprawling 1254.71 hectares though 289 hectares are developed so far. Various new enclosures, safaris including white tiger safari are planned to be set up during the course of master plan implementation soon.

The spacious lion and herbivore safari, open butterfly park and the white tiger enclosure with 10 tigers besides five Royal Bengal tigers in another enclosure will never disappoint visitors while the white tiger safari will be added to the list very soon. It also has a unique collection of birds in Parrot world while it has a total of 86 species comprising 10087 birds, reptiles, mammals in 41 enclosures.

Youth take it as an opportunity to go for a bike ride inside the zoo enjoying the natural beauty of the surroundings and watching their favourite inmates. Thereby they also contribute to the eco-friendly initiatives of the zoo park management.

There are 20 e-bicycles and 100 normal cycles at the Zoo park which visitors can rent. For each e-bicycle Rs.50 is charged per hour while a normal cycle can be had by paying Rs.25 per hour. Visitors can take their own cycles too on payment of Rs.100 as entry fee.

In their bid to make the premises a pollution free zone, the Zoo authorities have also provided 10 battery cars to ferry the visitors to visit various enclosures which they can use by paying the prescribed fee of Rs.50 for adults and Rs.30 for children. Also, the entry of two wheelers is restricted to avoid pollution and planning to ban four wheelers as well in future.

The Zoo park Curator M Hima Sailaja said that the main objectives of this Zoo park is conservation and breeding of endangered fauna with special focus on Eastern ghats. It has one among the 13 animal rescue centres in the country. The Nocturnal house being built by TTD to house nocturnal animals like Civet cats, Owls, Jungle cats etc., will become another attraction in the coming days.

This house will amuse the visitors as the species have their routine in the enclosures built resembling their natural habitat where the atmosphere will reverse day and night with the help of lighting patterns.

The authorities are making constant efforts to bring in more animals under the animal exchange programme. However, visitors who want to see a Giraffe may get disappointed and said to be very difficult to get one. "After spending nearly four hours inside the Zoo park, we have been taking a lot of memories with us. Our children were elated and enjoyed seeing the animals. The glow in their faces will be cherished for long with us", said a visitor.