- Declared a national park in 1983, it covers an area of about 4.45 km². Although it has the status of a national park, Van Vihar is developed and managed as a modern zoological park, following the guidelines of the Central Zoo Authority.
- The animals are kept in their near natural habitat. Most of the animals are either orphaned brought from various parts of the state or those, which are exchanged from other zoos. No animal is deliberately captured from the forest.
- Van Vihar is unique because it allows easy access to the visitors through a road passing through the park, security of animals from poachers by building trenches and walls and providing natural habitat to the animals.
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| Van Vihar National Park |
Tourist Attraction :
- About two decades back, a number of illegal stone quarries were operational in the area and being in the serene and beautiful location on the bank of big lake, many commercial organizations were trying to take hold of this valuable piece of land. Realizing importance of both in-situ and ex-situ conservation of wild fauna, it was decided to provide this area a legal umbrella under the Wildlife (protection) Act, 1972.
- A committee of experts was constituted to decide the modalities for constitution of this area as a Protected Area. An area of 4.4521 km² was notified as National Park in the year 1983 as per the committee's recommendation.
- The degraded hillock of Shyamla Hill along with private village land was initiated in 1980 and finally notified as a national park in 1983.
- Funding from Central Zoo Authority started in 1993-94 and also granted Van Vihar as a medium sized zoo on the same year. With the dedicated efforts of the park management, this area has now been transformed into an oasis of greenery. The area today serves as the green lung for Bhopal City.