Bhubaneswar: In a heartening development, white tigress Rupa has given birth to four healthy cubs at Odisha’s Nandankanan Zoological Park. The birth of these cubs, which took place in the early hours of November 2, adds to the park’s success in its tiger breeding program and brings hope for the conservation efforts.
Six-year-old Rupa, born at Nandankanan on September 22, 2018, to Roshan and Bijaya, has previously birthed two litters. Her first litter, sired by Rajesh, arrived in March 2022, producing three cubs. Tragically, two of them did not survive, but the surviving cub, Himanshi, was hand-reared and recently transferred to Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park under an animal exchange programme.
In January 2023, Rupa gave birth to her second litter, producing two healthy cubs, Amrita and Shiva, also sired by Rajesh. Both cubs remain at Nandankanan, contributing to the zoo’s conservation efforts.
This time, Rupa’s third litter was sired by Krishna, a melanistic tiger. The four cubs were born between 5:43 AM. and 9:31 AM, and Rupa is reportedly caring for them independently. To ensure their health and safety, the mother and cubs are under constant CCTV surveillance. As they remain with their mother, the zoo team has yet to separate them for sex determination.
The arrival of these four cubs not only brings joy to the zoo’s caretakers and visitors but also represents an encouraging milestone in white tiger conservation efforts.
A few days back, a tiger was brought from Maharashtra's Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve to Satkosia Reserve in Odisha under the NTCA inter-state tiger relocation programme. The first inter-state tiger translocation project in India, from Madhya Pradesh to Odisha's Satkosia Tiger Reserve, in 2018, was unsuccessful due to varied reasons.
