Delhi to exchange white tiger with Lucknow zoo

In order to infuse ‘new blood’ into its existing white tiger community, the National Zoological Park, Delhi is going to welcome a white tiger in few weeks, said a senior official of the park on Tuesday.

“We have decided to make an exchange of white tigers between our zoo and Lucknow Zoological Garden to infuse the fresh blood into the community. So, one tiger from Lucknow Zoo will be welcomed here and one tiger from our zoo will go there,” said the official.

The exchange will be made in few weeks, he added. “We initiated the process long time ago and the talks will be done by the end of this week. After everything is done, we will make the exchange,” he said.

The National Zoological Park, Delhi, at present, has 12 tigers and seven out of them are white. Interestingly, this month only, one of the two cubs born to a mixed pair of white tigers died due to liver problem days after their birth. The female had given birth to three cubs and one was stillborn.

Apart from this, in order to make the park 'world class', the park is also planning to initiate new projects one of which is adding an underwater aquarium to the park, he said.

“It will be a 'world class' facility. There will be glass panels and tunnels. We have requested the higher authorities for the approval. The file has already been sent to the cabinet. Once we get the approval, we will start working,” he said. It will be a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, he added.

The zoo had also planned to procure a pair of giraffes from Kolkata Zoo but the latter canceled it due some issues, he added.