First Lady inaugurates Chandigarh Bird Park
Built by the forest department, Chandigarh Bird Park is spread over an area of 6.5 acres and has two small aviaries and two walk-through aviaries.
First Lady Savita Kovind inaugurated the Chandigarh Bird Park at Nagar Van near Sukhna Lale on Tuesday.
Built by the Chandigarh forest department, the park is spread over an area of 6.5 acres and has two small aviaries and two walk-through aviaries. The structure surrounds thousands of plants of varying canopies, which gives an ideal habitat, food and shelter for these birds.
UT chief conservator of forests Debendra Dalai gave a tour of the facility to the First Lady and UT administrator’s wife Pushpa Devi Purohit, who visited both aquatic and terrestrial birds’ enclosures. UT adviser Dharam Pal and other senior officials were also present.
Main attractions
The aviary will be open to the public from Wednesday onwards between 10am and 5pm. It will remain closed on one day, which is yet to be announced.
The facility has around 250 pairs of birds of 48 species and subspecies. The main attractions include African lovebirds, budgerigars, white swan, black swan, wood duck, golden pheasant, green wing macaw, sun conures, African grey parrot, finches and melanistic pheasant.
There is a special enclosure for tamed birds as well. People will be allowed to interact with them in close proximity, click pictures and even touch them under the staff’s supervision. However, it will cost ₹100 for just a five-minute stay. Otherwise, the entry ticket to the park is ₹50. For children up to 12 years of age, it is ₹30. The aviary has a cafeteria, and outside food items are not allowed.
“The whole project is loosely based on the Bird Park in Jurong, Singapore. It will be very informative for the kids as well and I would especially like to thank the staff who worked on this project even with the two Covid waves going on in the city,” said Dalai.
