White tigers to get new home in Rewa

Govt okays setting up of breeding centre using genetic material of last white tiger seen in the wild. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jan 2, 2012, 24:55:23 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, home of last white tiger in wild, Mohan, will be the new experimental home for breeding the unique species of big cat, who will eventually be released into semi-wild habitats.

The environment ministry has given in-principle approval for setting up a conservation-breeding centre of white tigers in Govindgarh, Rewa from the genetic material of Mohan, captured in late 1950s.

Rewa Maharaja Martand Singh first sighted the male white tiger during his visit to Govindgarh jungle in 1950. After hunting for months, he captured the first living white tiger seen in nature.

For years, Singh with the help from official veterinary experts tried to breed the white tiger with coloured female tigers but failed. But, the year before Mohan died in 1958, Singh succeeded in creating a second generation of white tigers, which has expanded around the world.

The white tigers are normally bigger in size than the Royal Bengal tigers but are said to lack the agility of coloured tigers to hunt in the wild. In early 19th century, white tigers were found in Bengal, Bihar and Assam, when total tiger population in India was over 30,000. One out of 10,000 coloured tiger born is white primarily because of mutation of a colouring gene.

Mohan was said to be the last white tiger seen in the wild. But, his genetic material has helped retain the endangered sub-species of big cat in captivity.

"Almost all of the captive white tigers in North America today have descended from Mohan and are highly inbred. Some white tigers have also been mated with other tiger subspecies, creating what are called hybrid tigers," said a document on white tigers prepared by National Tiger Conservation Authority (NCTA).

The NCTA with the Central Zoo Authority will set up the conservation-breeding centre. The purpose is not only to conserve the dwindling population of white tigers but also to attract tourists.

According to officials, fully-grown tigers from zoo would be brought to Rewa for mating. "The cubs would be trained for sustaining in an enclosed forest area," said a Madhya Pradesh forest department official.

The state has been asked to start the groundwork for setting up the centre in captivity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Follow India news real-time updates and the latest news covered on Hindustan Times, featuring today's critical updates on Sonam Wangchuk Hunger Strike LIVE and more across India.