Beaches

Facing north on Elliot's Beach in Besant Nagar.

The Marina is the country's longest (and among the longest in the world) beach, and its 13-km length is often subdivided into more manageable units. The northern part of the beach (immediately south of the Cooum River) is called the Marina beach, and is followed by the San Thome beach, which lies north of the Adyar river estuary. Located on Marina Beach is a famous statue of Gandhi, India's freedom fighter. Download high resolution version (1152x864, 155 KB)Template:GNU FDL View of Elliots Beach, Besantnagar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Download high resolution version (1152x864, 155 KB)Template:GNU FDL View of Elliots Beach, Besantnagar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A view of Elliots Beach at Besant nagar, Chennai; looking north. ... Besant Nagar is one of Chennais most popular neighborhoods, named after the famous lady theosophist Annie Besant, and adjoins the Theosophical Society. ... Marina Beach, at 13 km long, is one of the longest beaches in the world. ... A kilometre (American spelling: kilometer) (symbol: km) is a unit of length equal to 1000 metres (from the Greek words khilia = thousand and metro = count/measure). ...

South of the Adyar, the first section is called Elliot's beach or Besant Nagar beach, and is followed by the Tiruvanmiyur beach, the Kottivakkam beach, and the Neelangarai beach. The beach is visited by most people in the late afternoon and evening, when the sea breeze effect is at its strongest. It is also favoured by joggers at dawn and by couples at night. A view of Elliots Beach at Besant nagar, Chennai; looking north. ...

Flora and fauna

The Guindy National Park in the south of the city is the country's smallest National Park, with an area of 2.76 km². This is also a rare National Park that is located completely inside a large city. It hosts a variety of endangered deer (mostly chital and black buck)), snakes (pythons, boas, cobras, kraits, vipers) and other endangered animals (tortoises, turtles) ^[1]. The adjoining IIT campus also holds many deer, non-poisonous snakes and monkeys. This park plays a vital role in cleaning the city's atmosphere, and is several degrees cooler than the city in summer. Indias first National park was Hailey National Park, now Jim Corbett National Park, established in 1935. ... Square kilometre (US spelling: Square kilometer), symbol km², is an SI unit of surface area. ... Binomial name Axis axis (Erxleben, 1777) The chital (also spelled cheetal) is a large spotted deer which commonly inhabits wooded regions of Sri Lanka and most of India. ... Binomial name Antelope cervicapra (Linnaeus, 1758) The Black Buck (Antelope cervicapra) or Indian Black Buck antelope, is a small antelope native to Northern India, Pakistan and Nepal. ... Genera Chersina Dipsochelys Furculachelys Geochelone Gopherus Homopus Indotestudo Kinixys Malacochersus Manouria Psammobates Pyxis Testudo Tortoise is the name given to the land-dwelling reptiles most of whose body is shielded by a special shell. ... Families See text Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudinata, most of whose body is shielded by a special bony shell developed from their ribs. ... The entrance to the campus, showing the logo (a stylized lamp) and the motto Siddhirbhavati Karmaja (taken from the Bhagavad Gita, meaning Success comes through hard work) The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a college of engineering located in Chennai, India. ...

The Arignar Anna Zoological Park (better known as Vandalur Zoo) is located southwest of the city and covers an area of 5.1 km². The Zoo was formerly located in the city under the name "Madras Zoo", and was the oldest zoo in the country (established 1854 ^[2]). It was moved to its current suburban location in 1980. It has about eighty species on display, and includes a lion safari and two aviaries. The Vandalur Zoo, also known as the Arignar Anna Zoological Park, in Vandalur, is located about 30 kilometers from the city of Madras. ... Square kilometre (US spelling: Square kilometer), symbol km², is an SI unit of surface area. ... 1854 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1980 is a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...

The southern stretches of the beach, from Tiruvanmiyur to Neelangarai, are favoured by the endangered Olive Ridley turtles to lay their eggs every winter, as are other beaches in Tamil Nadu and Orissa. At that time, many conservation volunteers work on the beach during the night to protect the eggs or to remove them to a hatchery. Hatchlings are usually released to the sea in March or April. Orissa (2001 provisional pop. ...

South of the city, along the East Coast Road, is located the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust, which hosts several fresh-water and salt-water crocodiles, alligators, gharials, and also turtles and snakes. It is considered an important institute for herpetological research, and performs services such as snake venom extraction for preparing antidotes. Genera Crocodylus Osteolaemus Tomistoma A crocodile can be any of the 14 species of large, water-loving reptiles in the family Crocodylidae (sometimes classified instead as the subfamily Crocodylinae). ... Species Alligator mississippiensis Alligator sinensis Alligator is a genus of the Alligatoridae family of crocodile-like reptiles. ... Binomial name Gavialis gangeticus (Gmelin, 1789) // Taxonomy The Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is the only surviving member of the family Gavialidae, a long-established group of crocodile-like reptiles with long, narrow jaws. ... Families See text Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudinata, most of whose body is shielded by a special bony shell developed from their ribs. ... Herpetology is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of reptiles and amphibians, including their classification, ecology, behavior, physiology, anatomy, and paleontology. ... Wasp stinger, with droplet of venom Venom is a general term for the poisons used by several groups of animal species, for the purpose of defense and hunting prey. ...