GUINDY NATIONAL PARK

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Context: A total of 421 birds of 63 species were spotted during the two-day annual bird census at the Guindy National Park here over the weekend.

Details:

About the park:

• Guindy National Park is a 2.70 km2 (1.04 sq mi) protected area of Tamil Nadu, located in Chennai, India, is the 8th-smallest National Park of India and one of the very few national parks situated inside a city.
• The park is an extension of the grounds surrounding Raj Bhavan, formerly known as the 'Guindy Lodge', the official residence of the governor of Tamil Nadu, India.
• The park has a role in both ex-situ and in-situ conservation and is home to 400 blackbucks, 2,000 spotted deers, 24 jackals, a wide variety of snakes, geckos, tortoises and over 130 species of birds, 14 species of mammals, over 60 species of butterflies and spiders each, a wealth of different invertebrates.

History:

• Guindy Park was originally a game reserve. In the early 1670s, a garden space was carved out of the Guindy forest and a residence called the Guindy Lodge was built by Governor William Langhorne, which had helped make St Thomas Mount a salubrious place for rest and recreation.
• The original area of 505 ha was established as a Reserve Forest in 1910.
• In 1978, the whole of the remaining area, popularly known then as the Guindy Deer Park, was declared a national park. 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/63-species-of-birds-spotted-at-guindy-national-park/articleshow/98504268.cms