A small trip to Kuruvampatti Zoological park - Salem

Entrance

      Kuruvampatti or Kurumbapatti zoo is located on the foothills of YERCAUD, the queen of Shevaroys. It is spread on 12 hectares and it is well maintained and organized by the Tamilnadu forest Department. The zoo provides shelter to some of the endangered Mugger crocodile, mammals, reptiles and birds.

On a festival holiday, I planned a small trip to the zoo from Salem city without much expectation. The road to the zoo after diversion from Yercaud road is worse; it took half an hour to cross the 5km to reach the zoo. Once I reached there, I felt a pleasant climate and lot of greenery. 

Kuruvampatti zoo

The department officials have placed sign boards everywhere in the zoo, so no confusion while visiting. The first thing i saw was star tortoise, a typical sub continental creature. Next to that was marsh or mugger crocodile (I can’t expect a gharial or salt water croc there).

In the bird’s section, as usual parrots, pigeons, some small birds were found. Some varieties of Parakeets like Alexandrian, Rose ringed, Plum headed were also there.Interestingly, for the first time I saw yellow footed green pigeons.

A big separate bird cage has been set for Peafowl. The beautiful white peafowl has been kept in a separate cage. Apart from that, a cage bigger than the peafowl’s was set near to the children’s park. It is for the water birds like Little Egret, Grey heron and the large throat pouched Grey pelican.

Water birds cage

A small water body or lake is there along the corner of the zoo, which serves the drinking purpose of animals and birds during summer. A stream of water from that lake runs along the zoo, and a couple of small catchment dam has been made which makes the place more beautiful with bamboo trees. As it was end of November, water level is full but during summer it will go almost dry.

Small lake near foothill

Next to the lake, a pair of Sambar deer is freely roaming in a large area allotted. Parallel to that chitals or spotted deers were spotted by us.  Finally, the majestic animal, Elephant is in open area for viewing to attract the children. I spotted a unlucky monkey (Macaque) in the cage, the one which is caught, but most of the macaques are roaming freely and seizes the eatables from visitors. Moreover reptiles like snakes and small mammals like Rabbit are also there. 

Tiny catchment dam

It is just a nice place to visit who would like to spend a couple of hours with the family. In my view, the zoo will attract more people if they add a carnivore like leopard, jackals, fox and a huge animal like gaur and a sloth bear.

The zoo closes around 5 pm and good time to visit is during november to february, during other months lake will be dry and you will be experiencing a hot and sultry weather.

Some of the pictures taken in Kuruvampatti zoo:

Hill side view

Sambar deer

Nice pose

Mugger crocodile

Chitals or spotted deer

Children's park

Children's favorite

Some Pictures collected from the Web:

Bridge across stream(Thanks to Beautiful salem community @ Facebook)

White Peacock

Zoo layout

                                                       

How to reach the zoo from 5 roads, Salem:

Take the route to Hasthampatti, in the roundtana take left and proceed to Yercaud road. After 3kms, near gorimedu roundtana take left which will proceed to the zoo (5kms roughly from there).

From Yercaud:

From yercaud to Salem at the end of ghat road, a small diversion is there at right (100m before Ganesh temple) which will take you to the zoo.