Explore the Wonders of Safari Park Karachi

Safari Park Karachi is a renowned Karachi recreational spot situated in Gulshan-e-Iqbal district. It occupies the area of 148 acres and allows people to close up with a variety of domesticated creatures in enclosed areas, which resemble their natural habitats.

History

Sindh’s Governor’s Safari Park Karachi was opened to the public in 1970. It was named as Mr. Ahmed Dawood, who was donating the land for its establishment. At first the park was dubbed as Karachi Zoological Gardens and later on it was called Safari Park from 2005. During the time, it has grown by innumerable ways and become one of the most loved sites for families’ recreation in the city.

Major Attractions

Safari Park in Karachi is a home to more than 300 live animals from over 100 species. Some of the major attractions include:

• Lion Safari: The section for visitors who are driving their car would be a drive through
  area where lions could be viewed going about their daily business in open environment. Here Asian lions, African
  lions, and white lions a residences.
• Birds Aviary: The aviary has a vast array of bird races, such as ostriches, peacocks,
  ring-neck parakeets, pheasants, turkeys, swans, and emus.
• Aquarium: Oceanarium and Reptile House exhibits different types of fish, turtles,
  crocodiles, snakes and lizards.
• Petting Zoo: In this area kids can communicate with animals such as bunnies, goats, etc., they can feed and pet them.
• Herbivores Section: This area has compounds which are meant for the animals like zebras, nilgai, deers, monkeys, and bears among other herbivorous mammals.
• Carnivores Section: Houses include even the top predators such as tigers, lions, pumas, leopards, wolves, hyenas, and foxes.

For kids, there is a playground inside the Safari Park with swings, slides and play equipment dedicated to their age. There are a few food stalls and restaurants around to offer drinks to the visitors. The ticket prices start from PKR 50 to PKR 800 per person, and you can get seats in different sections by paying the different rates.

Conservation Efforts

In the context of Safari Park, endangered species captive breeding programs are a part of the conservation strategies. These include chimpanzees, white lion, Bengal tigers, blackbuck, hog deer and sambar deer and many others. Such conservation initiatives aid in preservation of a gene pool and guard against extinction of rare endemic fauna.
Park agencies are in partnership with international animal welfare organizations like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to help them run their conservation projects , animal exchange programs and they are also facilitating their staff training workshops.

Challenges

The finances at Safari Park are not sufficient for the up to date renovation of some of the enclosures and animal habitats. These misconducts may result in ecosystem disruption or death of animals as well. Disrespecting rules that ban littering though warnings and signs put up across the park is still a problem that continues to trouble.

Having its main target of a family vacation, Safari Park Karachi is the most suitable outdoor recreational spot where children and adults are able to observe animals from the closest point. Increased education of the public and the government’s contribution for the upgrade of the park helping to realize the dream of establishing better services for visitors and responsibly managing conservation activities for endangered species.