Guindy National Park is located on the busy Sardar Patel Road next to the Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai. Guindy Park 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, the official residence of the Governor of Tamilnadu, India. It extends deep inside the governor’s estate, enclosing beautiful forests, scrub lands, lakes and streams.  The park has over 150 species of birds. There are also many kinds of amphibians and reptiles.

Guindy Snake Park, formerly the location of Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, is next to the Guindy National Park. The Snake Park in Chennai gained statutory recognition as a medium zoo from the Central Zoo Authority in 1995. There one can see King Cobra, pythons, vipers and other reptiles.

About 22 acres of the Guindy National Park has been carved out into a park known as the Children’s Park and play area at the northeast corner of the national park with a collection of animals and birds. Animals in the Children’s Park include black buck, sambar, spotted deer, porcupine, hyena, jackal, python, grey pelican, night heron, cormorant, cockatiel, parrot, mongoose, common peafowl, crocodile, common otter, rhesus monkey, bonnet monkey and common langur.

The Children’s Park also exhibits a fossilized tree specimen which is estimated to be about 20 million years old. The Children’s Park and the Snake Park have separate entrances and independent entry fees.