In 1854, Edward Green Balfour, the then director of the Government Central Museum at Madras, persuaded the Nawab of the Carnatic to donate his entire animal collection to the museum. 

This attracted large crowds and became the nucleus of the Madras Zoo, which was founded in 1855. In the beginning, the area was nothing more than a scrub jungle, with practically no tree cover. 

The zoo authorities and people from surrounding villages collected seeds of different trees from neighbouring areas and afforested the zoo area. The zoo is named after DMK founder CN Annadurai fondly called as Arignar Anna.