National Zoological Park (Delhi Zoo)

Prices from the zoo's official tariff. Children under 5 enter free in every category; senior citizens (60+) pay the child rate. Visitors from SAARC countries have their own, lower foreign rate. Tickets can be bought online on the zoo's site or at the gate.

The zoo is closed every Friday, all year. Bookings close at 17:00 in summer and 16:30 in winter, so arriving late in the afternoon gives you very little time inside. The short summary above gives winter hours as roughly 9:00–16:30; the zoo's own tariff page lists 9:00–17:00, with ticket sales ending at 16:30.

Online tickets are sold for time slots, and the slot sets your exit time as well as your entry. For the morning slot (8–12) booking closes at 11:00 and you must leave by noon; for the afternoon slot (13–17) booking closes at 16:00 and you leave by 17:00. Each ticket is good for one entry. Tickets can be moved to another date up to the day before, not on the day itself, and they are not refundable.

The zoo also closes for health reasons from time to time: in 2025 it shut from 30 August to 8 November after avian flu was found in a waterbird aviary. If you are planning around a particular date, check the notices on the zoo's site.

The rules are strict and checked at the gate. The zoo lists a cloakroom among its visitor amenities for anything that doesn't pass.

The zoo was planned in the 1950s on the advice of Carl Hagenbeck of Hamburg's animal park, who gave the idea of open moat enclosures in place of cages, and the layout is still a set of shaded walking loops between moats, ponds and lawns. White tigers are what most families come for.

Look up at the lake: wild painted storks nest in the trees there in season. They chose the zoo on their own and are not exhibits.

The full circuit is long. Battery cars run for anyone not up to walking it, and the zoo lists wheelchairs among its amenities.

The zoo's own site lists three metro stations at about 2 km each: Supreme Court, Khan Market and JLN Stadium. None is at the gate, so take an auto-rickshaw for the last stretch. India Gate is about 2 km away and New Delhi Railway Station about 6 km. The zoo also lists a dozen DTC bus routes that reach it from New Delhi and Old Delhi railway stations and the ISBT.

Purana Qila stands right beside the zoo and works well in the same day. Delhi Tourism lists the fort as open on all days, so it also works on a Friday, when the zoo is shut.

The Indian Board for Wildlife called for zoos in the larger cities at its first meeting in 1952. A committee that included Indira Gandhi picked the site between Purana Qila and Humayun's Tomb in 1953; the first animals were kept in Azimganj Sarai, a Mughal travellers' courtyard, while the enclosures were built. The park opened on 1 November 1959 as the Delhi Zoo and was renamed the National Zoological Park in 1982, meant as a model for the country's zoos. More than 2.7 million people visit each year.