Kukrail Reserve Forest (Hindi: कुकरैल जंगल), an urban forest created in 1950s as a plantation forest, is located about 9 km northwest from Lucknow city centre in the Uttar Pradesh state of India.[1] It has a captive breeding and conservation center for the freshwater gharials (gavialis gangeticus), one of the 3 native species of crocodiles in India.The Kukrail river flows through it.[2]
It is one of such 3 crocodile-breeding centers in India. Kukrail crocodile centre and the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust (breeds all 3 native crocodile species of India - freshwater muggers, freshwater gharials and salt-water crocodiles) are rated as top two most success crocodile breeding centres by National Geographic Society, the third being the Crocodile Breeding Centre at Kurukshetra (breeds only freshwater muggers).