India’s First Night Safari:
The SC has allowed the UP government to proceed with the country’s first night safari and the world’s fifth after Singapore, Thailand, China and Indonesia and zoological park project at Kukrail Reserve Forest in Lucknow.
- The project has received approval from the Central Zoo Authority and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
- Kukrail Reserve Forest, notified in 1950, is located in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh and spans around 4,500 acres, making it the city’s largest contiguous green cover.
- Kukrail Reserve Forest is named after the Kukrail stream, a tributary of the Gomti River.
- Kukrail Gharial Rehabilitation Centre (KGRC): The forest is also home to the KGRC, which is also home to India’s first gharial conservation centre, established in 1975 to save the critically endangered gharial.
- Urban Green Lung acts as Lucknow’s key urban green lung, helping in carbon sequestration, temperature regulation, groundwater recharge, air purification and climate resilience.
- The forest supports important urban biodiversity, including birds, reptiles, butterflies and small mammals, and contributes to the ecological health of the Kukrail stream.
