Gurugram to get world’s biggest jungle safari outside Africa

With the twin aim of preserving the diverse ecosystem of the Aravalli range and providing employment, the Haryana Government will develop the world’s largest jungle safari park outside Africa, in Gurugram and Nuh districts of the state.

The area covered by this park will be 10,000 acres. At present Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates has the largest curated safari park outside Africa. Inaugurated in February this year this park covers 2,000 acres.

Spelling out the details of the proposed park, a statement issued by Haryana Government said: “The proposed Aravalli park would be five times more than this size and it would include a large herpetarium (a zoological exhibition space for reptiles and amphibians), aviary/bird park, four zones for big cats, a large area for herbivores, an area for exotic animal birds, an underwater world, nature trails, visitors, tourism zones, botanical gardens, biomes, equatorial, tropical, coastal, desert, etc.”

Aravalli mountain range is the habitat of several species of wild animals, butterflies and birds. As per the Haryana Government statement it houses 180 species of birds, 15 species of mammals, 29 species of aquatic animals and reptiles and 57 species of butterflies.

In fact, the Union Minister for Forest, Environment and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav and the State Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had visited Sharjah Safari in this regard. On his return from the one-day visit, Khattar said that the NCR region of Haryana had immense potential for the development of a jungle safari.

The park will be a joint project of the Union Ministry of Environment and the State Government and will help in preserving the Aravalli mountain range while giving a boost to tourism thereby creating employment for the local people.