Delhi Zoo Enlivens With Birth Of Two Royal Bengal Tiger Cubs

At present both cubs are attended to by the mother and are completely dependent on the mother for feed and are doing well.

After January 16, 2005, a Royal Bengal Tigress delivered cubs at National Zoological Park, New Delhi, thus ending a long wait of 18 years that the Delhi Zoo witnessed the birth of little ones from the biggest cat.

The Royal Bengal Tigress (RBT) Siddhi delivered five cubs, two alive and three stillborn on May 4, 2023. At present both cubs are attended to by the mother and are completely dependent on the mother for feed and are doing well. The mother tigress and her cubs are being kept under the surveillance of CCTV Cameras and regularly monitored by the zoo staff.

National Zoological Park, New Delhi has four adult Royal Bengal Tigers in its collection and the house names of these tigers are Karan, Siddhi, Aditi, and Barkha. Tigress Siddhi and Aditi are of wild origin and were acquired from Gorewada, Nagpur.

National Zoological Park (Delhi Zoo) is housing tigers since its inauguration on November 1, 1959. On 14th May 1969, the first pair of lions was also received from Junagadh Zoo in exchange for one pair of tiger cubs. From the time of the acquisition of the tiger, Delhi Zoo has maintained its population for conservation, education and display.

Tigers have bred well in Delhi Zoo and have also been given in exchange too to many zoos in the country and abroad. In 2010, Central Zoo Authority started a coordinated planned conservation breeding programme of critically endangered wild animal species as it is the main objective of National Zoo Policy 1998.

For this coordinated planned conservation breeding programme, 73 critically endangered wild animal species were selected and coordinating and participating zoos were identified for each species. Under this nationally coordinated planned conservation breeding programme, Delhi Zoo has been selected as a participating zoo for Tiger.

To maintain genetic heterozygosity among the population of zoo tigers, animal exchange programmes have been undertaken. The current acquisition of Tigers is also part of a nationally coordinated planned conservation breeding programme to reproduce a genetically healthy population of tigers.