Bangaluru Aquarium

Bangalore Aquarium is located right in the heart of the city, next to the Cubbon Park entrance at the end of the MG Road. But not many people seem to notice the place, and even if they notice they hardly visit the place. Most of the people around me had not visited this place, though they had seen the board while crossing that crossing or while waiting at the signals all around that point. It is a small aquarium, with a small entrance charge of Rs 5/- for an adult.

The ticket counter is a separate hut outside the aquarium. After you buy the ticket, you have to take the ramp to enter the aquarium. Building is circular in shape and the aquarium is spread on two levels. The fishes are kept in series of small aquariums that are around the circumference of the building. There are about 50 varieties of fishes that can be seen on both the levels.

Most of the fishes are commonly available or commonly seen ones. Aquariums is in bad shape to say the least, as if there is hardly any maintenance, no wonder it hardly attracts any visitors despite being in the center of the city. Quite a few aquariums were broken and hence had no fishes. The labels that displayed the names of the fishes were missing in lot of places. Many boxes had labels but no fishes and some had fishes but no labels. The place could hardly be called clean, the lighting was poor. It seems the place has not been painted for years. Not sure how often are the fishes added to the place. One thing that fish lovers may enjoy is some 9-10 varieties of fish that is served in a small food joint outside the aquarium. Now, I being a vegetarian, can not comment on the quality of the food available, but my guess from the vibes that place gave is that it should be a good place to eat.

Though the aquarium is small, compared to famous aquariums in many cities around the world, but I think it still has the potential to be a good tourist attraction if it is maintained properly. Since Bangalore neither has a beach nor a river, this can be good place for children to learn about the aquatic life. There can be more educational material on aquatic life that can be made available to make the place more interesting. A simple thing could be instead of labels saying just the common name of the fish, it can give the more details like where do you find this fish, characteristics, scientific names etc. I sincerely hope that authorities responsible for this aquarium do something to make it more interesting and inviting.