Guindy National Park, probably the smallest national park in the country is located within the city limits of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu. Guindy National Park is a 2.82 km2 (1.09 sq mi) Protected area of Tamil Nadu, located in Chennai, South India, is the 8th smallest National Park of India and one of the very few national parks situated inside a city. The park is an extension of the grounds surrounding Raj Bhavan, formerly known as the 'Guindy Lodge', the official residence of the Governor of Tamilnadu, India. It extends deep inside the governor's estate, enclosing beautiful forests, scrub lands, lakes and streams. The park has a role in both ex-situ and in-situ conservation and is home to 400 blackbucks, 2,000 spotted deers, 24 jackals, a wide variety of snakes, geckos, tortoises and over 130 species of birds, 14 species of mammals, over 60 species of butterflies and spiders each, a wealth of different invertebrates—grasshoppers, ants, termites, crabs, snails, slugs, scorpions, mites, earthworms, millipedes, and the like. These are free-ranging fauna and live with the minimal of interference from human beings. The only major management activity is protection as in any other in-situ conservation area. The park attracts more than 700,000 visitors every year.

Once covering an area of 5 km2 (1.93 sq mi) of one of the last remnants of tropical dry evergreen forest of the Coromandel Coast, Guindy Park was originally a game reserve. It was owned by a British citizen named Gilbert Rodericks from whom it was purchased by the government in 1821 for a sum of 35,000. It was established as a Reserve Forest in 1910. Chital (Spotted Deer) were introduced into the park probably after 1945. It was transferred to the Tamil Nadu Forest Department in 1958, and in 1978 the entire forest was declared a national park. It was walled off from the adjacent Raj Bhavan and Indian Institute of Technology Madras Campus in the late 1980s. Guindy National Park, adjacent to the Raj Bhavan, is situated in the Mambalam, Guindy taluk in Chennai. Guindy National Park, The smallest national park in India and one of the few located in a metro. The park is an extension of the grounds surrounding the official residence of the governors of Tamil Nadu. It spreads over an area of 270 hectares of dry evergreen scrub and thorn forests and is the smallest national park in the country. Black buck, chital, jackal, pangolin, elephant, spotted dear, jungle cat, toddy cat and Indian civet are the major wildlife found. The park also shelters varieties of birds such as black winged kite, honey buzzard and pariah kite. A snake park housed within this park supports various snakes, crocodiles and turtles. This is a place where a lots of tourists are getting are attracted.

Guindy National park consists of various vegetation zones mainly tropical dry evergreen flora with over 350 species of plants including trees, shrubs, climbers, herbs and grasses. 24 varieties of trees including Amona Squamosa, Atlanta Monoplylla, Feronia Limonia, Azadirachta India and many others are found in this park. The animals found here include spotted deer, black bucks (also known as Rare Indian Antelope found only in India), white bucks, river otter, hyena, bonnet monkey, civet cat, jackals, pangolin, hedgehog and common mongoose. Birds which can be seen here are the black winged kite, the buzzard, olden Backed Woodpecker, Crow Pheasant, Yellow Wattled Lapwing, Red Wattled Lapwing, Blue Faced Malkoha, Shrikes, Koels, pariah kite, Minivets, Munias, Barkets, Parakeets, Grey Partridge, Tailor Birds, Robins, Drongos, Quails, Beak Paradise, Flycatcher, Stone Curlew and so on.

Chennai, formerly known as Madras or Madrasapattinam, is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India. As of 2011, the Chennai Metropolitan Area had a population of nine million. Chennai's economy has a broad industrial base in the automobile, computer, technology, hardware manufacturing and healthcare industries. The city is India's second largest exporter of software, information technology (IT). A major chunk of India's automobile manufacturing industry is based in and around the city, which leads it to be called as 'The Detroit of Asia'. The city is also called as 'Gateway to South India', due to its importance as a port city and its major role in South India's development. Chennai is an important centre for Carnatic music and hosts a large cultural event, the annual Madras Music Season, which includes performances by hundreds of artists. The city has a vibrant theatre scene and is an important centre for the Bharata Natyam, a classical dance form. The Tamil film industry, the second largest film industry in India, is based in Chennai.