The famous Arignar Anna Zoological Park is a special attraction amongst the tourists, located at the locale of Vandalur. It is almost thirty-two kms away from the Chennai city GST road runs across the park and there is another wonderful zoo, which covers an area of six hundred and two hectares.

The story of its formations is quite interesting. In fact Arignar Anna Zoological Park is highly acclaimed for being the first zoological park. It begun functioning in the year 1855

Only a small portion near central railway station of Chennai was opened up for the tourists. However with the increasing pollutants like smoke, noise of the vehicles etc that are mainly released from the urban tourists, most of the wild animals got infested with diseases.

This came as a warning to the concerned authorities that immediately took concrete action methods. Thus a plan was all set in the year 1976 in order to preserve these animals in ideal condition. As per the plan, the Tamil Nadu Government handed over the project to the State Forest Department and thus the first step towards building the Arignar Anna Zoological Park was being undertaken.

Also the Government instructed the concerned Department to select the Vandalur Reserved Forest, which constitutes of an area of about five hundred and ten hectares near the city of Chennai. The initial process of building the park begun in the year 1979, with a preliminary amount of Rs. 7.5 crores. Maximum of the work was finished in the year 1985 when the then Honorable Chief Minister of the state inaugurated the park and thus opened it for the tourists. The key features of this project were to set up the `Lion safari`, bird sanctuary, abode for reptiles, night house and also an entry point in the shape of a hill cave.

Arignar Anna Zoological Park has adopted with the vegetation of the existing dry evergreen forests, full with the thick bushes, trees and also weeds growing here and there. With progressive initiatives of the forest authority, few parched evergreen plants are grown here. Near about one hundred and thirty eight planting species are found here, including some cashew and Eucalyptus trees. As per the initials plans, to preserve the original vegetation remain, as it is, the whole area of Arignar Anna Zoological Park was enclosed. Only few roads, natural enclosures and building structures serve as openings. Furthermore, this whole ground has been sheltered by the structure of composite walls, thus making it absolutely free from any kind of interferences of human beings Thus the Arignar Anna Zoological Park is enriched with lush vegetables which finally offered an artistic outlook of a normal forest.

The Arignar Anna Zoological Park houses a feasible populace of rare species of the Eastern and the Western Ghats. Infact there are forty-six varieties of rare species are available. Cocatiel, Openbill stork, Checkered Keelback, Common Indian Krait , Asiatic Lion etc deserve special mentioning. Even rare species of foreign origins have found in the park fringes. The park even is nicely playing the task of species Bank and gene Bank comprising of an ample variety of wild flora and fauna. It is also considered to be an Educational Center, thus offering ecological consciousness and management education to the public. It serves as a place for fundamental and practical research works on numerous facets like animal behavior, nourishment, natural science, biology, diseases and leads importantly in maintenance of biodiversities. The Arignar Anna Zoological Park has the practical and technological services for proliferation and placing rare species to its unique locale.

The Arignar Anna Zoological Park is nicely connected both by the roads and railways. There are numerous bus services, which takes `21 G, 60 T (Tambaram to chengalpet)`. There is a railway station namely "vandalur" which provides a comfortable train journey for the tourists. To explore the wonders of Arignar Anna Zoological Park, the tourists can visit the place through out the year. Except Tuesdays, the park is opened through out the entire year. The ideal time for visiting the time is during weekends and also special holidays like Pongal festival.