Marghazar Zoo Islamabad: Is It Open in 2026?

Marghazar Zoo Islamabad is closed, and has been since 2020. There is no ticket, no visiting hours and no animals on public display. The Islamabad High Court ordered the zoo shut over the treatment of its animals, and the old grounds on Pir Sohawa Road, at the foot of the Margalla Hills, now hold a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre run by the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB). No public reopening date has been announced.

People still search for zoo timings and ticket prices because older listings and map pins have not caught up. This guide explains what happened, what is on the site now, why the "reopening" stories keep appearing, and where to take children who were promised a day of animals.

Is Marghazar Zoo open?

No. The gates you drive past on the way up to Daman-e-Koh belong to a facility that is not open as a zoo. Ticket prices you may see quoted online, on directory sites or in old travel blogs, date from before the closure. There is no current fee because there is no public zoo.

The site has not been abandoned either. Since 2021 it has been used to treat and rehabilitate wild animals that have been injured, seized from illegal owners or rescued from poachers. That work is not set up for casual visitors, and we could not find any published visiting hours or booking route for the public. Don't turn up with a car full of children expecting to be let in.

What happened to the zoo?

The zoo opened in 1978, originally as a refuge for leopards, spotted deer and gazelles, and grew to cover about 82 acres on the edge of the Margalla Hills. At its peak it held around 600 animals and drew about a million visitors a year, which made it one of the capital's standard family outings.

Its reputation was poor for years before it closed. Press reports recorded a string of deaths blamed on neglect: lion cubs that died in 2017 after being given the wrong milk formula, an ostrich lost to staff negligence the same year, and deer killed by a wolf in 2018. Critics pointed to small enclosures, poor food and sick animals.

The case that finally ended it was Kaavan, an Asian elephant kept largely alone and in chains for most of his life. A long international campaign, led in part by the singer Cher, drew attention to his condition. On 21 May 2020 the Islamabad High Court ordered that Kaavan be moved and that the zoo's other animals be shifted to sanctuaries, and it placed the site under the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board. Kaavan left for a sanctuary in Cambodia at the end of November 2020, and the last of the zoo's animals had gone by the end of that year.

What is on the site now?

The IWMB took administrative control on 24 June 2021 and turned the old grounds into what it calls the Margalla Wildlife Centre, a rescue and rehabilitation facility. The News reported that from its formal start in August 2021 the centre had taken in around 381 animals: mammals, birds and reptiles.

Dawn, visiting in April 2024, described a site that still looks like an old zoo in places, with an abandoned Ferris wheel and a makeshift clinic in the former cafe, but now housing rescued black bears, some with their claws removed after years of being made to dance or fight, along with leopard cubs and tigers seized from private owners. Dawn reported later that the number of rescued black bears there had reached ten. Many smaller animals, such as rhesus monkeys, pangolins, porcupines, jackals and civets, are treated and released back into the hills.

The IWMB has said it wants to turn part of the site into a visitor information centre, with displays for the public, while keeping the rest for rescue work. That plan has been talked about since at least 2024. We could not confirm that it has opened.

Will Marghazar Zoo reopen?

Possibly, in some form, but don't plan around it. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) ran the zoo before 2020 and has tried more than once to take it back. In January 2024 Dawn reported that the CDA wanted to reclaim the site and rebuild it as a zoo to international standards, arguing that the court had never ordered it closed for good. The IWMB replied that the court's judgment was never challenged, that global practice is moving away from traditional zoos, and that it was weighing legal options to keep the site as a rescue centre.

That dispute is why "zoo to reopen" headlines appear every so often. None of them has yet produced a public zoo with gates and tickets. If a reopening is announced, it will be in the Islamabad pages of Dawn and The News well before it happens, so check there rather than relying on a directory listing.

What to do instead near the old zoo

The old zoo sits at the bottom of the road that climbs into the Margalla Hills, and several of the places around it are open and worth the trip.

• Japanese Park is right next door, a children's park with swings, slides and lawns. It is the easiest swap if the outing was meant for small children. Our Japanese Park guide covers timings and what to expect.
• Daman-e-Koh, a short drive up the hill, is the classic viewpoint over Islamabad, with tea stalls and space to walk. Rhesus monkeys live in these hills, and children often spot them near the road. See our Daman-e-Koh guide.
• Trail 2, which starts beside the old zoo and climbs to Daman-e-Koh in about an hour, suits older children who can manage a steep path.

For birds and wildlife in their own habitat, the Margalla Hills themselves are the better bet. Leopards, barking deer, wild boar and many bird species live there, and our Margalla Hills National Park guide explains how to see the hills on foot. You are unlikely to see the shy mammals, but birdwatching early in the morning on the lower trails is good.

Where is the nearest working zoo?

If seeing animals in enclosures is the whole point of the day, Islamabad cannot offer it now. The closest public zoos are in Lahore: the old Lahore Zoo on Mall Road and the larger Lahore Safari Zoo on Raiwind Road. From Islamabad that is roughly four to five hours each way on the M-2 motorway, so it only works as part of a Lahore trip rather than a day out. Our Lahore Zoo guide covers tickets and timings there.

For other ideas closer to home, from museums to lakeside rides and indoor play centres, our list of kids activities in Islamabad is organised by age, and our experiences page has more outings around the capital.

Is it worth going to the old zoo site at all?

Only as part of a visit to the places around it. The road past the gates is the route to Daman-e-Koh and Pir Sohawa, so you will pass it anyway, and Japanese Park next door is a perfectly good hour for young children.

What it does not suit is anyone expecting a zoo. Families who drive in from Rawalpindi or further afield on the strength of an old listing are the ones who end up disappointed. If you want to support the rescue work, the IWMB has its own public channels for news and appeals, and that is a better way to get involved than turning up at the gate.

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