As of 2019, there are 632 parks in

Chennai City Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), departmen ...

, including 142 parks in the north zone, 224 in the central zone, and 266 in the south zone. They range in size from 700 square metres to 5,000 square metres. A couple of the parks, including the

Anna Nagar Tower Park Anna Nagar Tower Park, officially known as Dr Visvesvaraya Tower Park, is an urban park in the suburb of Anna Nagar, Chennai. It is the tallest park tower in Chennai. The tower has been closed for the public. However, the park is still open. H ...

, are spread across acres. In 2018, the city's green cover was estimated to be 14.9 percent, up from an estimated 4.5 percent in 2011. The per capita green cover of the city has been estimated at 8.5 square meters, as against the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

recommendation of 9 square meters of green cover per capita in cities. The city lost around 100,000 trees in December 2016 because of

Cyclone Vardah Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Vardah was the fourth cyclonic storm, as well as the most intense tropical cyclone of the 2016 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. The remnants of the system later regenerated into Depression ARB 02 in the Arabian Sea. ...

. As of 2018, the city's tree cover is estimated to be around 64.06 sq km. This is just over 15 percent of the entire city. The most dominant species of trees in the city are

copper pod ''Peltophorum pterocarpum'' (commonly known as copperpod, yellow-flamboyant, yellow flametree, yellow poinciana or yellow-flame) is a species of '' Peltophorum'', native to tropical southeastern Asia and a popular ornamental tree grown around the ...

Indian beech ''Millettia pinnata'' is a species of tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, native to eastern and tropical Asia, Australia, and Pacific islands. It is often known by the synonym ''Pongamia pinnata''. Its common names include Indian beech and Pongam ...

neem ''Azadirachta indica'', commonly known as neem, nimtree or Indian lilac, is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of two species in the genus ''Azadirachta'', and is native to the Indian subcontinent and most of the countries in Afr ...

gulmohar ''Delonix regia'' is a species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae native to Madagascar. It is noted for its fern-like leaves and flamboyant display of orange-red flowers over summer. In many tropical par ...

raintree Rain tree is a common name for several plants and may refer to: *''Albizia saman'', a tree in the family Fabaceae, native to a range extending from Mexico south to Peru and Brazil *'' Brunfelsia'' a genus of shrubs and small trees in the family Sol ...

, and

tropical almond ''Terminalia catappa'' is a large tropical tree in the leadwood tree family, Combretaceae, native to Asia, Australia, the Pacific, Madagascar and Seychelles. Common names in English include country almond, Indian almond, Malabar almond, sea almon ...

. The overall extent of open space in the city is 34.58 km². In all, the city has 121 species of trees belonging to 94 genera and 42 families. Teynampet zone remains the most diverse with 68 species, and Manali zone with just 38 species is the least. With 51 parks, Adyar remains the zone with the highest number of parks in the city, and Tiruvottiyur zone scores the least with only 4 parks. The share of Chennai's greenspace is dominated by the

Guindy National Park Guindy National Park is a protected area of Tamil Nadu, located in Chennai, India, is the 8th-smallest National Park of India and one of the very few national parks situated inside a city. The park is an extension of the grounds surrounding R ...

, with an area of 2.71 sq km, which covers a vast area south of the Adyar River. As of December 2014, the city had about 396 parks. Until 2011, the seven zones of the old corporation limits had about 260 public parks, 154 traffic islands and 103 centre median parks, maintained by the parks department of the

Corporation of Chennai The Greater Chennai Corporation, formerly known as the Corporation of Madras (1688-1996) and Corporation of Chennai (1996-2016), is the civic body that governs the city of Chennai in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Inaugurated on 29 September ...

, many of which suffer poor maintenance. Public parks include 88 notified parks, 73 park sites in extended areas, and more than 100 open spaces that have been earmarked for recreation purposes. The eight zones in the newly added areas of the city have about 265 locations that have been identified for development of new parks. The largest among the parks in the city is the 358-acre

Tholkappia Poonga Tholkappia Poonga or Adyar Eco Park (also known as Adyar Poonga) is an ecological park set up by the Government of Tamil Nadu in the Adyar estuary area of Chennai, India. According to the government, the project, conceived based on the master ...

, developed to restore the fragile ecosystem of the Adyar estuary. Chennai's greenspace is further augmented by a network of open spaces containing

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

s, and

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

s that are set aside as natural areas along the city's periphery. In pre-Independence days, the ceiling on the number of permanent workers for maintenance of city parks was fixed at 350. This has not been revised till date.

Water requirement

The average amount of water required to maintain the parks in the city is 5 litres per square metre, which averages to about 5,000 litres per park.

Increase in numbers

Until 2011, there had been 260 parks in the city. In the following year, 200 new parks were proposed. Eighty-seven of these were opened in January 2014 and the rest are nearing completion as of July 2014. By December 2014, there were about 396 parks in the city. In July 2014, the Chennai Corporation identified more than 440 open space reserves (OSR) to create 100 new parks in the city. The Corporation hopes to have at least 560 parks in the city by March 2015. However, this number would still remain way lower than that of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

(1,500),

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

(1,300),

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

(721) and

Hyderabad, India Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the '' de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern In ...

(709).

List of parks

Venus Park Perambur Chennai Tamil Nadu India

, * Dr. Annie Besant Park *

Arignar Anna Zoological Park Arignar Anna Zoological Park (abbreviated AAZP), also known as the Vandalur Zoo, is a zoological garden located in Vandalur, is in the southwestern part of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, about from the Chennai Central and from Chennai Airport. Establish ...

, * Ashok Nagar Park * Bogun Villa Park * BPC Park * Chennai Corporation Park, Periyar Nagar,

Perambur Perambur is a neighbourhood located in the northern region of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Etymology In Tamil, ''pirambu (பிரம்பு)'' means bamboo and ''ur (ஊர்)'' means city or place. Before British rule, this place was wid ...

* Chetput Aeri Park, * G Block Park * Gandhi Park * Gill Nagar Park *

, 700 acres () * Kodambakkam High Road Park * Haddows Road Park * Independence Day Park * Indira Nagar Park * Jeeva Park * Jeeva Park, Ayanavaram * Journalist Colony Park * Kalaignar Karunanidhi Park * Kennedy Square Park, Perambur * KKR Avenue Park, Perambur * Labour Colony Park * Maadi Poonga * Madhavaram Botanical Garden, * Manali Lakeside Park * Mathur MMDA Park, * May Day Park, * Mayor Sundararao Park * Mugaliwakkam Park, (0.52 hectares) * My Ladye's Park * Nageshwara Rao Park, *

Natesan Park Natesan Park is a park in T.Nagar, Chennai, India. It is located on Venkatanarayana Road. The park covers an area of and was opened to the public on 13 September 1950 by the then Minister of Agriculture, A. B. Shetty. It is the only park mai ...

, * Nehru Park * Nesapakkam Park *

Panagal Park Panagal Park is a park and a locality in Thyagaraya Nagar, Chennai. The park is named after the Raja of Panagal, the Chief Minister of Madras Presidency who created the park. It is an important junction and is the commercial centre of T. ...

, * People's Park * Perambur Flyover Park * Rajiv Gandhi Park, Mettupalayam,

* Sathyavani Muthu Nagar Park * Secretariat Colony Park * Secretariat Park, *

Semmoli Poonga Semmozhi Poonga, variously spelled as Semmoli Poonga (literally translated to "Classical Language Park"), is a botanical garden in Chennai set up jointly by the Horticulture and Agricultural Engineering department of the Government of Tamil Na ...

, * Shenoy Nagar Park, * Sivan Park * Surya Narayana Park * Thiru Nagar Park * Thiru Vi Ka Park, * Thiruvalluvar Park, Velachery *

, 358 acres () * Tiruvallurvar Nagar First Avenue Park * Turn Bulls Road Park * Valluvar Kottam Park * Vasuki Park,

Kodungaiyur Kodungaiyur is a residential neighbourhood in the northern part of the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It comes under Perambur Taluk of the Chennai District. Location and surroundings Kodungaiyur covers a vast area bordering Manali to th ...

* Venus Park, Paper Mills road, Gopal colony, Perambur.

References

External links

Homepage of Corporation of Chennai
{{Chennai Topics

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Parks A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

Water requirement

Increase in numbers

List of parks

See also

References

External links