Vandalur Zoo

I went to Vandalur Zoo last weekend(March 28, 2016) with my family and my siblings’ families.  I should say the overall experience was outstanding.  I felt as if I’m in Singapore or so.  It was very green with lots of trees and more importantly the roads and walkways were pristine clean and no trash.  There were plenty of trash bins everywhere.  They don’t let you take any plastic bags or food into the park.  If you have kids then kids food is allowed.  Also the park employes lots of employees to clean and maintain it.  Based on my knowledge of going there 10 years back, I would say the Vandalur Zoo has been given a significant facelift and maintained extremely well.  I think someone higher official is very sensible and running the park in full control and discipline.

They now have several battery operated cars ( trains ? ) like the ones in Hollywood Universal Studios to take you for a 1 hour trip around the park stopping all major animal attractions in the park.  We stopped to see deer, bison, giraffe, gorilla, chimps, tiger, lion, hippo etc.  It looks like the entire round trip distance is 6.5 kms and it is impossible to cover everything in one day by walk and that too with your kids.  We enjoyed the battery car ride and it made our day more enjoyable.  It costs Rs 350 for one dedicated car for a single family or Rs 30 per individual person.  

There are bikes ( bicycles, I mean ) available to rent ( probably several hundreds in all different sizes).  I saw several youths and kids taking their own tour of the park in these cycles.  We didn’t rent the bike for the tour because few of our kids were less than 3 years old.  

We also did the Lion Safari where they take you in a closed van into an open Lion Reserve.  We saw several Lions and Lioness there.  It costs Rs.350 per family again.  Our kids enjoyed the Lion Safari very much but we were worried about the safety.  Not that bad and people running the vehicles seemed to be meticulous in closing the passenger doors and locking them with keys.  Also the windows and other opening were covered with iron grills for extra safety.  Also they have a double door protection at the entry/exit point to ensure Lions don’t escape when the vehicle enters or exits.

Near the entrance of the park there is an aquarium where collection of fish and turtle are housed.  These were colourful fishes and the fish tanks were maintained very clean and displayed very well.

Our kids enjoyed the snacks we had taken from home.  We also bought aavin icecreams in the aavin ice cream parlour there.  It was relaxing and we all enjoyed our day at Vandalur zoo.  We would visit again in the near future.  Because we went there very early in the morning at 9:00 am, we didn’t see much crowd.  However when we were about to return home at 1pm, we saw huge crowd entering the park.  So we highly recommend anyone going to Vandalur Zoo to go early in the morning to beat the crowd and have a relaxing tour.