Jun 212013
 

A Family Picnic at Hyderabad Zoo Park

When I came back from Tadoba National Park in Maharashtra, the kids were first very happy to see the pictures and Video of Tigers. But soon they realized what they have missed, hence the demand to take them to Hyderabad Zoo and show the tigers started.  Now we have been to the Hyderabad Zoo earlier so I was not very keen to go. So I looked towards Missus for some support, but she had totally conspired with the kids, and I had a feeling she was the one who planted the seeds of rebellion.

 Hyderabad Zoo Baby Hippo

Baby Hippo

So one fine morning we all packed our lunch boxes, filled the bottles with chilled water and all kind stuff to munch in the zoo, as the Hyderabad Zoo is very spread out and  you need to walk a lot from one enclosure to another.

When we reached the Zoo it was already very crowded, being summer vacations, almost everybody in Hyderabad was there. The line at the ticket counter reminded me of the days when there was no online booking for train tickets, or the days when Big B’s movie use to release and people would Q in whole night to get tickets for first day first show of a hit movie.

“Hello Hyderabad Zoo How about starting online booking of tickets?”

Hyderabad Zoo Park Black Buck

Black Buck

You are allowed to take your car inside Hyderabad Zoo, but considering the cost I am not sure how many people would want to do that.

We started our darshan of animals from the giant Indian elephants, who are neighbors of the naughty apes. But the kids were interested in Tigers like everybody else now days. So we straight went to the tiger enclosure. I must say we were very lucky as after posing for us the Tiger decided that he wants to go for sleep and vanished inside an enclosure. There is also a tiger safari but due to serpentine Q, we missed the bus safari that takes you through the open area where you can see Tigers and Lions.

Royal Bengal Tiger resting in shade Hyderabad Zoo Park

Tiger Resting

What we missed in Tiger Safari was more than made by the Sloth Bear, who posed for a long time for us. I was so happy with the encounter with Sloth bear, as I have missed clicking Sloth Bear by just fraction of second both in Ranthambhore National Park and Pench National Park. ( I was recently able to click Sloth Bear with cub in Satpura National Park )  But the show stealer was this baby hippo who dived for us in water and came out to munch on some grass and kids just loved him. I liked the Indian Fox family who were playing in the enclosure, and just loved the black bucks, which I have last seen in Tal chapar.

Indian Fox family resting under tree Hyderabad zoo

Chatur Lomdi – The Cunning Fox

While the one horned Rhino was too shy to even move and stood like a stone most of the time. The Gaurs reminded me of the Majestic Gaur I had seen in Madumalai and I actually at this stage was feeling sorry for them to be not in jungle.  Kids also loved the flamingos that were just standing still as if in meditation, the flamboyant Peacock, put up a grand show with full dance that will put the participants of dance reality show to shame. The visit to Hyderabad Zoo was rounded off with a joy ride in the toy train, making the family picnic complete and I had 3 happy faces beaming with Joy in the car during our return journey. But let me confess as all the animals were in enclosures we felt pretty safe, but for some reason on seeing the crocodiles I felt a chill in my spine even though they were too lazy to even look at us from there enclosure.

One Horned Indian Rhino Hyderabad Zoo

The Shy Rhino Was Trying To Hide Behind a Palm Tree

A Peacock Dancing with feathers open Hyderabad Zoo

The Flamboyant Peacock Dancing At Hyderabad Zoo

I think Hyderabad Zoo is one of the better Zoos in India with most of the animals we saw looking pretty healthy and well-kept.  Though they need to manage the crowds better and take care of toilets etc. that stink.

The animals in Zoo do not give you the same thrill as seeing them in the wild and given a choice I would like to release all of them back to the jungle, but I think Zoos have their own space in conserving and breeding some of the rare animals and I will leave the decision to the experts.  Over all we were happy to visit the Hyderabad Zoo which is officially called Nehru Zoological Park and just Zoo Park by folks in Hyderabad.  We totally missed the White Tigers for which the Hyderabad Zoo is most famous for. But I requested my friend and pro photographer Ganesan to share some pics of white tigers and will be posting them in the next post.

Crocodiles taking sun bath Hyderabad Zoo

The Crocodiles Were Sunbathing but Still gave me a Chill down my spine

Indian Sloth Bear Hyderabad Zoo

The Sloth Bear Was Very Inquisitive

cycles for rent Hyderabad Zoo

You can rent Bicycles to ride around Zoo

Hyderabad Zoo Park Flamingos standing on one leg

Flamingos In Meditation At Hyderabad Zoo

How To Reach Hyderabad Zoo: Please follow this Google Map below to reach Hyderabad Zoo located near Bhadurpura West in Kishan Bagh, and is easily approachable from both Old City of Hyderabad, as well as from Hitech City.

There are 2 souvenir shops in the zoo, that sell various animal toys, etc. Cold drinks, water and snacks are available and there is a functional restaurant in the Zoo, unlike Mrugavani, where you get almost nothing.  You can bring your food to enjoy a picnic, but please do not feed the animals and birds in the zoo.

What All Animals are there in Hyderabad Zoo: Well besides the animals mentioned in this post above, you also have Jaguars from South America, Zebras, Giraffes, Emu, Ostrich, different kind of monkeys, apes, reptiles like  various Snakes, monitor lizards, exotic birds, leopards, Hyenas, Wolf and many other birds and animals that you can see in the zoo at very close and safe distance.

 Hyderabad Zoo Timings:   April to June: 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM
July to March: 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM.    Tuesday to Sunday. The Hyderabad Zoo remains closed on Monday and government holidays.
So if you are in doubt if the zoo is open or not please call them on this number-Ph: 040-24477355  ( Though I have never dialed them so can’t guarantee if anybody will pick the phone 🙂

Ticket Price for Hyderabad Zoo: Adult Rs 20, Child 10. Still camera fee: Rs 20, Video camera fee: Rs 500.  You can also take your car in for Rs 750 (to be increased to Rs 1000 soon as per news paper reports), with 5 people in it. Though I would suggest you park your car and take the golf carts to move around that charge Rs 40 per person and give you a full round of the zoo. For those you want to see the zoo at their own pace you can walk or rent a bicycle in the zoo.  The Toy train ride is for fun and cost Rs 15 for adults and 5 for kids. The safari ride in the tiger enclosure is Rs 25 for adults and 10 for kids.  Here is a list of places to visit in Hyderabad 

 

  18 Responses to “Hyderabad Zoo – Famous for Tigers and other animals”

Comments (18)
  1. We don’t seem to have to adult foxes in Nehru zoo , hyderabad. The ones we see are litters of some fox family. Pretty exciting and amazing though…….

  2. Wonderful read and informative. I am going to take my kids here soon.

  3. How much charging for DSLR camera , mine is nikon d3200 and my frnd is having nikon d7100 with big lens?

  4. Awesome photos and nice write up.Thanks for sharing.

  5. Beautiful captures!
    I wonder why do they keep such high ticket price for video-cam when we can take quite good videos with our modern still cameras… anyway, it’ll take another 100 yrs for them to realise this basic fact 🙂

    • Our govt. still lives in the VHS tape era, hence the high price for the video cam. I think only the professional movie makers pay that as every cell phone and DSLR is capable of taking Youtube worthy videos… 🙂

  6. some nice moments 🙂

  7. I visited Hyderabad Zoo way back in 1998 and for me it was as part of picnic too…. i had come to visit my uncle who was in the army..and the unit decided to have a family picnic at the zoo.it was quite enjoyable 🙂

    yes, it is one of the better zoos in India 🙂

    http://www.myunfinishedlife.com

    • That is so nice to know you have been to Hyderabad zoo as a kid :).. it is indeed a fun place to visit with kids for a family picnic and learned about birds and animals… thanks.

  8. I love to see Animals & I have went Zoo many time just to see & enjoy but I never been in Hyderabad zoo. I wish to be in Hyderabad zoo to See more attractive animals.

  9. Well narrated with beautiful photos…

    thanks

  10. Umm..I’m impressed. I thought the animals had been weak, but they look pretty healthy. The picture of the peacock is stunningly beautiful. It’s been almost two decades I had been to the zoo. I still remember going there on a school excursion in my 10th std and seriously making notes of every single silly stuff that I saw 🙂

Dear fellow traveler welcome to desi Traveler, I am excited to have you here, please share your thoughts and I will be very happy to reply. Please check our Blog Comment Policy. All comments are moderated and urls in comments end in spam automatically. Happy travels.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.