Flora and fauna of Chennai
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[edit] Rivers and Lakes
There are two semi-perennial rivers flowing through Chennai, and there are a number of lakes in and around Chennai, most notably Velachery Lake and Pallikaranai Lake.
[edit] Beaches
The Marina is the country's longest (and among the world's longest) beach, and its 13-km length is often subdivided into more manageable units. The northern part of the beach (immediately south of the Cooum River) is called the Marina beach, and is followed by the San Thome beach, which lies north of the Adyar river estuary. Located on Marina Beach is a famous statue of Mahatma Gandhi.
South of the Adyar, the first section is called Elliot's beach or Besant Nagar beach, and is followed by the Tiruvanmiyur beach, the Kottivakkam beach, and the Neelangarai beach. The beach is visited by most people in the late afternoon and evening, when the sea breeze effect is at its strongest. It is also favoured by joggers at dawn and by couples at night.
Before the Madras Harbour was built, the Marina beach was just a strip of mud, teeming with mudskippers.
[edit] Flora and fauna
The Guindy National Park in the south of the city is the country's smallest National Park, with an area of 2.76 km². This is also a rare National Park that is located completely inside a large city. It has a scrub forest mostly consisting of Prosopsis juliflora and the animals found here include chital and black buck, snakes (pythons, boas, cobras, kraits, vipers) and many species of birds. [1]. The adjoining IIT campus also holds many deer, snakes and monkeys. A small deer population also thrives in the nearby Anna University campus. This park plays a vital role in cleaning the city's atmosphere and is several degrees cooler than the city in summer.
The Arignar Anna Zoological Park (better known as Vandalur Zoo) is located southwest of the city and covers an area of 5.1 km². The Zoo was formerly located in Park Town under the name "Madras Zoo", and was the oldest zoo in the country (established 1854 [2]). It was moved to its current suburban location in 1980. It has about eighty species on display and includes a lion safari and two aviaries.
The southern stretches of the beach, from Tiruvanmiyur to Neelangarai, are favoured by the endangered Olive Ridley turtles to lay their eggs every winter, as are other beaches in Tamil Nadu and Orissa. At that time, many conservation volunteers work on the beach during the night to protect the eggs or to remove them to a hatchery. Hatchlings are usually released to the sea in March or April.
South of the city, along the East Coast Road, is the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, which hosts several fresh-water and salt-water crocodiles, alligators, gharials, and also turtles and snakes. It is considered an important institute for herpetological research, and performs services such as snake venom extraction for preparing antidotes.
A large number of white storks can be seen in the rivers Cooum and Adyar. In addition, the Government of India has plans to classify the Adyar Estuary into a protected eco-system.
Lakes such as Pallikaranai also play host to a number of migratory birds during the monsoon and winter.
