Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. As one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), it is recognized as an Institute of National Importance Founded in 1959 with technical and financial assistance from the former government of West Germany, it was the third IIT established by the Government of India. IIT Madras is ranked the top engineering institute in India by the Ministry of Education's National Institutional Ranking Framework since its inception in 2016. IIT Madras is a residential institute that occupies a 2.5-square-kilometre (0.97 sq mi) campus that was formerly part of the adjoining Guindy National Park. The institute has nearly 600 faculty, 10,000 students and 1,250 administrative and supporting staff. Growing ever since it obtained its charter from the Indian Parliament in 1961, much of the campus is a protected forest, carved out of the Guindy National Park, home to large numbers of chital (spotted deer), black buck, bonnet macaque, and other rare wildlife.[citation needed] A natural lake, deepened in 1988 and 2003, drains most of its rainwater.
