Nehru Zoological Park

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Recently I went with some friends to Hyderabad’s Zoo, called ‘Nehru Zoo Park”. The Zoo is the closest well-known landmark to where I stay in Hyderabad—often we just tell the auto rickshaw driver to take us to ‘Zoo Park’ when they haven’t heard of our far-away part of town.

My trip to the Zoo was another exercise in comparing India to home, because going to the Zoo was such a notable event for me growing up. I was eager to see how this Zoo would compare to those I’ve been to in the States. First, the sign at the Zoo’s entrance noted that if you were to use your camera, you should pay 50 Rupees (a little more than one dollar). Did I follow that rule? Heck no! That’s another thing that India has taught me—that rules are meant to be outwardly agreed to, but in reality often not practiced.

I first noticed that this Zoo had an unusual number of birds—pelicans, sparrows, and especially lovebirds. I really enjoyed viewing the several varieties of lovebirds there, because I had a pair of lovebirds as a pet when I was about 10.

And then it was on to the more unusual animals—the hippopotamus and the rhinoceros. When I saw the hippo, I felt so bad for it, because the water in the large moat that it had to cool itself was so mucky. But it sat in that water and we were only able to see the top of its head.

I was able to take a nice snapshot of the rhino, and that is only because a large group of adolescent boys were provoking it until it came right up to them. When the boys saw me and my friends, they started to follow us around while heckling “Welcome to India!” and “Can we take a picture?” While we’ve gotten used to this sort of silly attention, it wasn’t fun spending the rest of our Zoo tour trying to lose them.

I had heard of the famous white tigers in the Nehru Zoo, and they were indeed very cool. When we were standing by their cage, one of the Zoo’s workers mentioned for us to come closer to the gate. Of course, I eagerly walked right up to the cage. Then the worker brought some raw meat and held it up to the cage so the tigers would come to us. The tigers had the bluest eyes I have ever seen in an animal.

Our zoo trip culminated in my first elephant ride in India. While it was sort of anticlimactic, I am happy that I was able to do it while I am here. Next up for me is riding a camel!

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Comments

[anonymous]

miser
Its so sad that you tried to save 1$ when it would not matter to you if you would have given it anyway. How would a dollar matter to you? Then you complain of parks etc not being well maintained, thats just being hypcrit. You have no right to feel bad of that hippo lying in murky water, when people like you who are capable of giving money dont do and feel proud in breaking rules. You should be ashamed of yourself.

[andrea]

miser?
unfortunately, the problem with giving money is that often that money does not go towards improving infrastucture, or in this case the lives of the animals at the zoo. all too often, donated funds go straight to he pockets of corrupt custodians. to call someone a miser, without even knowing them, is cowardly...how do you know whether this person doesn't give money to the beggars on the street, or has a charity that she gives to?