Bhubaneswar: Global Tiger Day, often called International Tiger Day, is an annual celebration to raise awareness for tiger conservation, held annually on 29 July. It was created in 2010 at the Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit in Russia.
The world is now home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, the Sumatran tiger, the white tiger, the Indo-Chinese tiger, the Malayan tiger, the Siberian tiger, the Bengal Siberian tiger, and the southern Chinese species, while the Caspian, Bali, Javan tiger.
As always, India has the highest number of tigers. According to another data, there are a total of 200 white tigers in the world, while there are only about 100 white tigers in India.
The story of the rare Royal Bengal Tiger in Nandankanan: –
There are a total of 351 tigers in zoos across the country. However, Nandankanan Zoo has gained a lot of fame in terms of tiger numbers and breeding.
After the birth of the white tiger for the first time in 1980 Nandankanan has become a home to tigers. Researchers are still working on the white tigers.
Authorities hoped to create a different species of tiger gene after the zoo succeeded in gaining a unique reputation in the world in terms of breeding white tigers.
Amid all this, tigress Renuka and White tiger Manish were born from White Royal Bengal Tiger Rohit & Tigress Saileja on February 28, 2008.
So these two tiger cubs went on to make history for Nandankanan. When they reached adulthood, the white tiger Manish was paired with tigress Sneha and they gave birth to two melanistic cubs – Subhranshu & Krishna on July 28, 2014, and Viki on August 27, 2016.
Sneha had mated with a male tiger, Manish, a normal-colored Royal Bengal Tiger. The pairing was part of the planned breeding programs of NZP.
However, after Manish was found to have a black tiger gene, its sibling Renuka was also diagnosed with a type of black tiger gene.
So the authorities considered the white tiger Samrat to be mated with Tigress Renuka.
On December 22, 2018, two melanistic cubs were born from Renuka inside the tiger enclosure of the Nandankanan Zoo bringing cheers to the wildlife lovers and Zoo officials.
The two black tiger cubs, named Basu and Spandan, also stayed in the enclosure.
According to experts, many of Nandankanan’s tigers are now disinterested to mate because the gig cats have continued to mate in the enclosure since generation and amidst their own bloodline following which they will not look like tigers Bahubali & Kundan.
Tigers Nandan and Megha gave birth to Bahubali & Kundan.
Meanwhile, Nandankanan’s other cubs struggled for initial 15 days. It is being spotted that the latest generation is turning out to be weak after being captive for generations.
The first melanistic tiger Krishna is also living in isolation and not allowing any other tiger to join him.
However, the researchers believe that a new place for Nandankanan’s adolescent big cats will help to expand a new lineage.
The white tigress Ragini and Wither tiger Viki were sent to Kamla Nehru Prani Sanghrali, i.e. Indore Zoo from Nandankanan to start a new journey.
Black Tigers are, like White Tigers, not a unique subspecies. Rather, they are Bengal Tigers with what is known as pseudo-melanism. Pure melanism refers to a large amount of black pigmentation of the hair/fur / feathers, eyes, and so on.
The Nandankanan Zoo now has:
- 12 Tigers –namely Bahubali, Kundan, Saif, Nandan, Luv, Kush, Megha, Sara, Rajesh, Shubhshree, Ankita and Adyasa.
- 6 White tigers — Sahil, Emperor, Vijaya, Sneha, Mousumi and Rupa.
- 3 melanistic tigers — Krishna, Basu, Spandan
- 4 newborns
Nearly, 100 years ago, 1 lakh tigers lived in India. However, the count continued to decrease and by 1972 the numbers were 1827. In the same year, the Wildlife Protection Act came into effect.
India currently has 51 Tiger Reserves.
As a result of this conservation campaign, the number of tigers reached 3,500 by 1990. There are now 3,400 tigers in the forest. India has the highest number of tigers in Madhya Pradesh with 526, while Karnataka has 524, Uttrakhand has 442, Maharastra has 321 and Tamil Nadu has 264 tigers.
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