Mumbai: After a long wait, a pair of tigers from Aurangabad’s Siddharth Zoo will finally arrive at Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan (Byculla Zoo) on Wednesday. Civic officials will reach Aurangabad on Tuesday to take the custody of the two felines.
The two tigers from Siddharth Zoo will be sent to Mumbai in exchange for two pairs of spotted deers and two pairs of painted storks, a senior civic official told the Free Press Journal.
The Siddharth Garden and Zoo, run by the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation, was renovated recently and the tiger-bird exchange was decided due to the excess number of big cats at Siddharth zoo.
“The zoo at Solapur too had both sought a pair of tigers during the same time as we did, however a survey of facilities at both Zoos were conducted by the officials of Aurangabad Zoo, a report of this survey was submitted to Aurangabad Municipal Commissioner.
Preference was finally given to the demand made by the Byculla Zoo,” said a senior Civic official.
The Siddharth Zoo has 13 tigers and had made it very clear that they will make enough arrangements to house all 13 tigers in the zoo but will not send them to other zoos or facility.
However last year the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) permitted only nine striped animals to be kept at the facility.
The Aurangabad Zoo originally had nine big cats, however, in April 2019 Samruddhi an eight-year-old tigress gave birth to four cubs (Two white and two yellow tiger cubs) taking the count to 13 tigers at Siddharth Zoo.
According to the official, Siddharth Zoo has 12 big cats, which are “excess” in numbers. “ We will exchange four-spotted deers and four painted storks for two tigers Shakti (Male) and Karishma (Female).” said a senior official from Byculla Zoo.
Tiger Shakti was born in November 2016 to tigress Samruddhi whereas tigress Karishma was born in July 2014.
