Chandigarh, Oct 6 (IANS): Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday said the state would develop the world's largest jungle safari park on 10,000 acres in the Aravallis in Gurugram and Nuh districts.

For this, 6,000 acres have been identified in Gurugram, and the rest in Nuh. This project will be the largest in the world, Khattar told the media here.

Currently, the largest curated safari park outside Africa is in Sharjah that is spread on an area of about 2,000 acres. However, the Aravalli Park would be five times more the size of Sharjah.

The jungle safari park will have 10 zones and it would include a large herbarium, aviary and bird park, four zones for big cats, a large area for herbivores, an area for exotic animal birds, an underwater world, nature trails, visitors, tourism zones, botanical gardens, equatorial, tropical, coastal, desert, etc.

India Forest, Environment and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav and the Chief Minister, along with a delegation, had visited the jungle safari in Sharjah.

"The developing of the jungle safari will not only give a major boost to the tourism but will also provide ample employment opportunities to the local people," said Khattar.

He said companies with international experience in designing and operating such facilities have been shortlisted.

The Chief Minister said the Central Zoo Authority has done an evaluation study of the area and has agreed upon the technical feasibility of setting up such a park.

He said on one hand developing jungle safari would help in preserving this mountain range while on the other, a large number of people from Delhi and adjoining areas would come here for tourism, which would create ample employment opportunities for the local people.

Furthermore, people in the surrounding villages will be benefited from the home stay policy, said the Chief Minister.

"The Aravalli mountain range is a cultural heritage where many species of birds, wild animals, butterflies, etc., are found. In this jungle safari, 180 species of birds, 15 species of mammals, 29 species of aquatic animals and reptiles and 57 species of butterflies that exist in the Aravalli mountain range will be included in the safari," he said.