Sanjay Gandhi Jaivik Udyan (also known as Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park) or Patna Zoo is located off Bailey RoadinPatna, Bihar, India.[5][6][7] The park was opened to the public as a zoo in 1973. The park is Patna's most frequented picnic spot, with more than 36,000 visitors on New Year's Day alone in 2022.[8]
Since 1973, this park has been a biological park, combining a botanical garden with a zoo. The land acquired from the Public Works Department and the Revenue Department was declared protected forest by the state government on 8 March 1983.[2]
A giraffe at Patna ZooA resting antelope at Patna ZooA Sloth Bear at Patna Zoo.
Having started as a botanical garden, the park currently houses more than 300 species of trees, herbs and shrubs. Plant exhibits include a nursery for medicinal plants, an orchid house, a fern house, a glass house, and a rose garden.[2]
The park also includes an aquarium which is the largest revenue generator after the general admission fee. The aquarium has about 35 species of fish, and the snake house has 32 snakes belonging to 5 species.[2]
The Patna Zoo makes considerable effort to conserve and propagate endangered species from around the world. Breeding captive wild animals is a difficult challenge that the zoo has met with some notable success.
The great one-horned rhinoceros has been bred successfully several times in the past. In 2008, Patna Zoo earned acclaim for its breeding techniques.[9]
Ahippopotamus has given birth for the first time at the zoo to a male hippo on 19 April 2001.[citation needed] There have been several other hippo births since, including in 2007.[10]
A leopard gave birth to two cubs on 18 June 2001, after a gap of 16 years since the last birth.[citation needed]
Analligator has bred for the first time in the zoo on 29 June 2001 and after that several time in past. The number of gharials or alligators here have gone up from 13 to 129 in the last five years.[11]
Aporcupine bred for the first time in the zoo on 12 June 2001 and gave birth to two baby porcupines.[citation needed]One-horned rhino in water puddle during summer at Patna Zoo
The zoo received a white tiger in the first week of March[when?] from Nandan Kanan Zoo, Bhubaneshwar. This has improved the chances of breeding the tiger in the zoo.
There is a single male zebra in the zoo. It is expected[when?] that a female zebra will arrive in the zoo if the Central Zoo Authority approves the proposal.
Media related to Sanjay Gandhi Jaivik Udyan at Wikimedia Commons
