Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
Calcutta Zoo
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- Zoological Garden, Alipore
- Alipore Zoo
- Kolkata Zoo
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1875
History
The Zoological Garden, Alipore (also informally called the Alipore Zoo or Kolkata Zoo) is India's oldest formally stated zoological park.
The zoo had its roots in a private menagerie established by the Governor General of India, Richard Wellesley, established around 1800 inn his summer home at Barrackpore near Kolkata, as part of the Indian Natural History Project. The first superintendent of the menagerie was the Scottish physician zoologist Francis Buchanan-Hamilton. Sir Stamford Raffles visited the menagerie in 1810, and doubtless used come aspects of the menagerie as an inspiration for London Zoo