IEP Chandigarh, October 6
Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal said that the State is all set to develop the world’s largest jungle safari park on an area of 10,000 acres in the Aravalli mountain range of Gurugram and Nuh districts. For this, 6000 acres of land have been identified in Gurugram and 4000 acres have been identified in Nuh. This project will be the largest such project in the world, informed Sh. Manohar Lal while addressing a press conference here today. Currently, the largest curated safari park outside Africa is in Sharjah on an area of about 2000 acres. However this Aravalli Park would be 5 times more this size. This jungle safari park will have 10 zones and it would include a large herbarium, aviary/bird park, four zones for big cats, a large area for herbivores, an area for exotic animal birds, an underwater world, nature trails, visitors, tourism zones, botanical gardens, biomes, equatorial, tropical, coastal, desert, etc.Union Minister for Forest, Environment and Climate Change, Sh. Bhupender Yadav, Haryana Chief Minister, Sh. Manohar Lal along with the delegation has visited Sharjah Jungle Safari.”The developing of this Jungle Safari scheme will not only give a major boost to the tourism in the State but it will also provide ample employment opportunities to the local people,” said Sh. Manohar Lal. He further informed that companies with international experience in designing and operating such facilities have been shortlisted. The Chief Minister said that the Central Zoo Authority has done an evaluation study of the area for this and has agreed upon the technical feasibility of setting up such a park.He said that on one hand developing jungle safari would help in preserving this mountain range while on the other a large number of people from Delhi and adjoining areas would come here for tourism, which would create ample employment opportunities for the local people. Furthermore, villagers in the surrounding villages will be benefited from the Home Stay Policy, said the Chief Minister.”The Aravalli mountain range is a cultural heritage where many species of birds, wild animals, butterflies, etc. are found. In this jungle safari, 180 species of birds, 15 species of mammals, 29 species of aquatic animals and reptiles and 57 species of butterflies that exist in the Aravalli mountain range will be included in this safari, informed Sh. Manohar Lal. Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Sh. D S Dhesi, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Sh. V. Umashankar, Additional Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Dr. Amit Agrawal, Principal Secretary, Tourism Department, Sh. M. D. Sinha and other officers also remained present on this occasion.
