Tirupati: Works in progress for white tiger safari at SV Zoological Park

Tirupati: The visitors have to wait further to visit the white tiger safari at SV Zoological Park as the works may take some more time. The Zoo park has 10 white tigers now in a separate enclosure where visitors love to spend some time observing them.

The zoo is already having a lion safari and herbivore safari while the proposal to launch the white tiger safari was pending for quite some time and the visitors were eagerly waiting for that.

Speaking to The Hans India on the occasion of the International Tiger Day which will be observed on July 29 every year, curator M Hima Sailaja said that the infrastructure is ready but some other works need to be completed before launching the new attraction.

She said that the zoo park is having five Royal Bengal tigers and 10 white tigers as of now whereas the proposed safari will house only white tigers.

Explaining about the importance of the International Tiger Day, the curator said that the day is being observed every year to promote the protection of the natural habitat of tigers. It is important to raise awareness about the conservation of tigers. For tiger conservation, forests are to be protected as they are the natural habitats of endangered animals like tigers.

She said that they would conduct various programmes on Thursday to mark the importance of the International Tiger Day. In view of the pandemic situation, both online and offline competitions were planned to facilitate those who could not visit the zoo park on the day.

Accordingly, quiz programmes, essay writing, drawing & painting competitions will be held both online and offline at SV Zoo park on Thursday. The theme for essay writing would be 'Tiger Conservation in India' while for drawing and painting competition the theme is 'Tiger in its habitat'. Further, a talk will be arranged at the zoo park by experts on tiger conservation, she said.

Meanwhile, international studies reveal that wild tiger numbers dropped globally by more than 95 per cent since the beginning of the 20th century.

However, on a happy note, their numbers are on the increase now for the first time in conservation history while the aim of the conservation through various programmes is to help double the number of wild tigers to over 6000 by 2022.