Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park – Pune Zoo and Katraj Snake Park
Once upon a time, there existed the Katraj Snake Park. Then, slowly the park expanded it horizons by bringing in other animals and expanded into the Rajiv gandhi zoologicl park also known colloquially as the Katraj Zoo. The zoo also has a lake within it premises.
Route to go to the Pune Zoo (From Magarpatta): Go to the Solapur road, keep going towards Swargate, at the swargate signal, turn left towards Katraj. Keep going straight. After a while (a long while), you should see the zoo on your left.
Go to the Pune Zoo only under the following conditions:
- If you have never been to any half-decent zoo before. One can literally count the number of animals in the zoo.
- If you want to have your morning walk/jog in the presence of few dozen deers. With an entrance fee of 5 rupees, it is the best bet for a good run amongst a bit of greenery. Of course, avoid anytime after the mornings, as the place gets thronged with whoever has 5 rupees change in the pocket.
- If you love to see deers and more deers. The ratio of deers to other animals is around 92.5 to 1. Maybe, other animals were obtained under special packages such as buy a tiger, get 20 deers free.
- If you want to test the limit of your big zoom lens or to test your ophthalmologist’s claim that you can identify objects at farway distances after your recent eye operation. I have a 200 mm lens and it proved to be extremely difficult to get decent shots of the animals. It is easy to recognise animals if they move around. Imagine a bear lying still around a 100 m away..Half the crowd was playing a trasure hunt trying to spot the location of the bear in the compound. This is the first zoo i have seen where the elephant is kept around half a km away from the viewing area. We could get to see the trunk and tail of the elephant (at least that is what we thought those were!)
- if you are studying any course in design and want to get examples of how not to design things. The design of the pune zoo is a marvel in itself. When you enter the zoo, you can either turn right or left. On the left, you will find monkeys, snakes and other smaller creatures. The board towards the right says “Elephant” prominently. Akshara is very fond of elephants and hence we turned right. Bad decision! We walked on for almost 200 metres and were yet to come across the first animal/cage! The road on the right goes past lot of enclosures for almost 1.5 kms. Each enclosure is at least a 100 m apart and every second enclosure has deers. Unfortunately, the elephant was the last. But, we were ok. Akshara didnt seem to mind seeing a deer every second second! Then came the bad news! The only way to get back to the start/gate of the zoo was to walk back the entire 1.5 kms as the road finished at the lake and it looked like swimming across the lake was not an option. Maybe, the zoo authorities wanted to ensure that you didnt miss any deer. This proved to spoil the day as my parents. already tired from the long walk had to now walk back. There was mini-tram service and that looked to provide an easy way. But, this was not a hop-on-hop-off service. It took a group of people around the zoo and then took them back. With just a few trams and few hundred people, the waiting time at the start is something not worth mentioning.
Some photographs from our trip.
Akshara didn’t seem to mind, as there was always some animal to watch and she was being carried or driven around in a pram.
But, even in such a zoo, i found few takeaways. There were boards kept near many enclosures which explained the roots of the names of animals and also the differences between antelopes/deers and turtles/tortoises. The difference between turtles and tortoises was a cool thing to know.
There is also the boating facility on the katraj lake. Surprisingly, there were no life jackets or life guards around.
The highlight of the zoo was this enclosure which had graves for the dodo and the Indian Cheetah and a proposed one for the Tiger. The message was strong and direct. I stayed next to this place for a fewminutes and it was funny listening to the comments of people ranging from “Oh, this must be the place where they bury dead animals” to “Oh, a tiger died recently?”.
i fully agree to george,samir,rajaram and siddharth….whoever wrote this..i guess is realy a lazy dumb person…do u want a zoo like shopping mall…like having a elevator for u to get to elephant…i think it was ur first experience to visit zoo in ur life…its not abt ur comfort u lazy potato its abt the comfort of animals taken care of…zoo shud look like a real forest…bcoz children love to see that way…not in the closely packed area where they will just see animals which are gone crazy bcoz off crowd…zoological parks are meant for childrens mainly so u keep ur reviews to urself…anyways childrens are not going to stop visiting the zoo…and u better get a miniature of a zoo in ur house and play with it…
Everyone has their own opinions …
I think it is a very nice place with absolutely ample place for animals … Animals don’t have a problem if they get more place .. !! But human nature wants to intrude in their space too .. Why do you feel bad if the cages are big ?? How does it matter to you? Would you prefer to have everything at your footstep and cramped so that you can easily access it? Why don’t you get 2-3 elephants and keep them in your balcony?
Secondly, you care so much about comfort that you felt it was so very important to blog it on a webpage !! Disgrace .. huh..
Now, I agree that your parents must have faced a problem while walking all the way .. But it is a part and parcel of what comes when you go to unknown places.. And being older than you I am sure they appreciate having seen the conserved animals more than rattling of how it was a bad experience .. People like you would never really like the nature for its beauty but will try to find your space in everything ..
never mind bro .. take care and try to appreciate things.. Selflessly ..
nice one
awesome place i havn’t seen these types of place in my life when i saw i was feel god giving so much to seeeeeeeeee………….i request to all friends please go to these park and i hope you enjoy really well….if you have any doubt then ask me at these emailid………..nishantlovepriyanka@gmail.com
thank you
hi…..nice park i was invited these park during my study tour from birla college,kalyan
i love these park and along with also like snakes park
Dr.Samir and George, I also agree to your comments. Though i might have written so about the zoo, i am not an animal hater. On the contrary, i love animals. Having said that, i am not the extreme kind where i protest for the closure of all zoos and campaign for animals to roam free on the roads. Purists exist only on paper in their words, it cannot just be practical.
If a zoo advertises itself as a zoo, then let it function so. If the one in Pune is meant to be an animal safe haven or a research centre, i wouldn’t be complaining that the facilities for us humans to see the animals are not ok. A zoo can provide entertainment as well as provide animals their space and freedom. Taking a kid to a zoo is not just for watching animals do some antics, but also can be very educative. Just reading about animals on books or watching them on TV would never compare.
A case in example is the SIngapore zoo, easily one of the best zoos in the world. And, this zoo doesnt harm animals for the same of entertainment of us humans. The zoo is very entertaining (for kids and adults alike) and also extremely informative. You can have shows talking about the capabilities of the animals and birds and their skills. You can showcase an endangered animal and explain its significance..you can do dozens of such things and yet be entertaining.
i seriously doubt that the pune zoo is interested in doing anything that you have mentioned. It is just another ill-funded zoo in our country where neither us humans or the animals get their due.
Btw, if you read my post completely, i am not the kind who is just interested in watching monkeys jumping around. I did learn few things even in this zoo.
On a positive note, i heard that improvements were on the way as one person pointed out. Hopefully, they work and make it a much better place – for the animals to stay in and for us to see them 🙂
First and foremost, an intriguing review with some nice sarcasm. Secondly, preview of the zoo of what exactly is to be expected, and what are the things one can look forward to. And lastly, I completely agree with all the points Mr. N. George said.
The animals need their space. Though zoos provide entertainment and help us know and see the different species that there are, the fact remains that it’s the animals that make the zoo, not humans. Besides, the zoos have many more functions that simply being an “observatory” for humans to watch the animals…most of which are animal health, conservation and research purpose oriented. It’s very heartening to know that Pune has a zoo that caters foremost to the animals it inhabits and only then to the humans rather than the other way around which is the case in most other places. What father would want their children to learn that it’s okay to constrain and hold animals in small enclosures away from their natural habitat just so that they could watch it do some antics? And there are rules about spoiling the environment carrying plastic bottles and other things that are followed strictly too.
There was a much bigger lesson to be learnt and taught through all this, but sadly you seemed to have missed it. Animals would be a much safer when people change their views and stop putting only their comfort at the foremost at the cost of others.
Your article is quite amusing, I must agree, but the Rajeev Gandhi Zoological Park thankfully has the good sense not to house the animals in small enclosures so that idiotic people like you have an easy time spotting them. As far as layout and management is concerned it is in fact very well thought out, since the animals have a sufficient distance to retreat to from the gawking gaping crowds, which is to be expected.
The large number of deer, which in fact belong to different species, also because unlike other animals, deer can be housed in a relatively smaller area in larger numbers.
It was initially only Katraj Snake Park, and later became a zoo, so the left and right had to be planned so that the snake part was incorporated with the rest of the zoo, you bumbling nit wit.
Elephants are temperamental animals and that is why they don’t keep them close to the viewing area.
And since you obviously know nothing about the basics of wildlife conservation or management, try to keep your obviously inane and mundane comments and criticism to yourself.
thanks Jayashree. Good to know that there are improvements. I will update the blog entry with your details.
Thanks for your blog. It helped us set our expectations. We went recently on 11-07-2011. Here is the update. My kids enjoyed it. Except for the long walk, which we could have avoided by opting for the battery operated car for a nominal fee, it was a nice zoo. We went on a week day, so it was not super crowded. The weather was nice that day, so didn’t feel bad walking all the way. They moved the elephants a little closer, but the sign board were not fixed, so we ended up walking all the way to the end of the zoo 🙂 We went first towards the reptile side, which I think was a good idea, as we saw 40% of the zoo with very less effort. Saw snakes, aligators, crocodile, turtle, tortoise, monkeys, deers, elephant, white and yellow tiger, leopard, bison, peacock, owl, bear, jackal, porcupine. Didnt take the boat ride so cant comment about it. Tickets are Rs.10 now. They dont allow plastic bags inside, probably due to which it looks clean. They have 3 toilets I think, very okay okay. Close to the gate as soon as you enter there is a board with the map of the zoo drawn with chalk. Some might find that useful, I saw it while coming back.
Hope this helps!!