63 species of birds spotted at Guindy national park

• A total of 421 birds of 63 species were spotted during the two-day annual bird census at the Guindy National Park.

Guindy National Park:

• Guindy is India’s eighth-smallest national park and one of the very few national parks located inside a city.
• It is located in the heart of Chennai’s metropolitan area of Tamil Nadu.
• It is one of the last remnants of the tropical dry evergreen forests of the Coromandel Coast.
• Flora: Tropical dry evergreen forest, Scrub and thorn forests.
• Fauna: Blackbuck, Toddy cat, Civet cat, Jungle cat, Pangolin, Hedgehog, Shrew and black-naped hare etc.

Tropical dry evergreen forests of India

• The Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest is a unique forest found only in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
• Its distribution is restricted to the narrow coastal strip from Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in the north to Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu in the south.
• The dissymmetric climatic condition of this region, where rainfall occurs both during summer and winter monsoons and extended the dry season from March to September, favours the development and sustenance of the Tropical Dry Evergreen forest in this narrow strip.
• The TDEF has a mixture of trees, shrubs, lianas, and herbs and forms a complete canopy in pristine condition and provides habitat to a wide variety of animals including insects, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.