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Recently, the Uttarakhand Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj has written to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, requesting him to send white tiger cubs from the Maharaja Martand Singh Judeo White Tiger Safari and Zoo in Rewa.
About white tigers
- The white tiger or bleached tiger is a leucistic pigmentation variant of the Bengal tigers, Siberian Tiger and man-made hybrids between the two
- They are reported in the wild from time to time in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha in the Sundarbans region and especially in the former State of Rewa.
- Such a tiger has the black stripes typical of the Bengal tiger, but carries a white or near-white coat.
- The first white tiger was spotted in Madhya Pradesh’s Vindhya region, in which the Satna district falls, in 1915. The rare breed of the big cat, which was caught for the first time, died in 1920.
- In 1951, a white tiger cub, named Mohan, was captured.
- It later became the progenitor of all known white tigers in the world after the Rewa princely state’s ruler Maharaja Martand Singh arranged its breeding.
Sitabani Wildlife Reserve
- Sitabani Wildlife Reserve falls in the Nainital district of Uttarakhand and has geographical and ecological characteristics of the Sub-Himalayan belt.
- It comprises an entire hill of the Kumaon Himalayas and is flanked on three sides with dense Sal forest connecting it to the famous Jim Corbett National Park.
- To the north, it is connected to the Oak and Rhododendron Himalayan mountain forests of Nainital forest division and the western boundary is etched by a sub-tributary of the Kosi river. Broadleaved deciduous forest, riverine vegetation, scrubland, grassland along with gorges and ravines form a varied topography inhabited by rare wildlife.
Maharaja Martand Singh Judeo White Tiger Safari
- It was established in 2016
- The safari, housing three white tigers, including one male named Raghu and two females, Vindhya and Radha, is open to the public.
- The ‘White Tiger Safari’ is situated adjacent to the sprawling Mukundpur Zoo which is spread over 75 hectares
Source: The Indian Express
