Pilikula Nisargadhama
Coordinates: 12°55′46.9″N 74°53′44.5″E / 12.929694°N 74.895694°EPilikula Nisargadhama is picnic spot / hangout at Vamanjoor near Mangalore in Karnataka.
Pilikula literally means Pond of Tigers. In Tulu language "pili" means tiger and "kula" means lake. In olden days, tigers used to come to this lake to drink water. Hence, this lake came to be known as Pilikula.
Pilikula Nisarga Dhama Society has developed this area and it has now become the hot spot for people who are looking for scenic beauty & peace. Pilikula has a huge lake & beautifully laid gardens encircling the entire lake. One can see swans & ducks moving around in the lake & sometimes they even move into the gardens. Boating facilities are available in the lake. One can either use pedaling boats (mostly preferred by couples) or bigger boats carry about 10 to 15 persons.
On the other side of the road, there is a zoo featuring several wild animals. The specialty of this zoo is that the wild animals are not kept in cages. They are in the open. However, there are partitions like wide trenches or wire mesh, in order to avoid direct contact with visitors. There are tigers, leopards, bears and other wild animals inside the park.
There is also a variety of snakes & birds in the zoo
Adjacent to zoo is Manasa Water Park which is similar to the Water Kingdom in Mumbai.
An arboretum (a garden comprising woody species of plants, i.e. trees and shrubs) extending over an area of 35 ha has been established at Pilikula Nisarga Dhama where about 60,000 seedlings belonging to 236 taxa of flowering plants of Western Ghats, spread over 60 families have been planted randomly as well as family clusters. They include 70 taxa endemic to the Western Ghats region. The arboretum has a focus on the conservation of the plants of the Western Ghats. It not only contains a number of threatened species, but also a few Re-discovered species that were considered to be extinct earlier.
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Wikipedia