The Delhi zoo received two tigresses and a pair of sloth bears from Maharashtra on Monday morning under an animal exchange programme

In return, the Delhi facility will provide sambar deer, albino blackbuck, blackbuck and barking deer to the Gorewada zoo and rescue centre in Nagpur. “We received two tigresses from the Nagpur zoo early this morning for breeding purposes. The tigresses will be kept in quarantine for 20 days and will be released in their enclosure thereafter,” an official said.

The Central Zoo Authority had approved the animal exchange last month. The two tigresses, aged around three years, were rescued from Chandrapur district in Maharashtra. The officials said the Arignar Anna Zoological Park in Chennai is also likely to provide a tiger to Delhi.

A Bengal tigress was brought from Kanpur for breeding purposes in November last year. The Delhi zoo is a participating zoo for the “Conservation Breeding Programme” of Bengal Tiger.

According to the Central Zoo Authority, the programme is the science of conserving a species by preventing imminent population collapse in the wild due to a large number of eliminative pressures (such as habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, industrialisation, poaching, illegal trade and climate change).

At present, the Delhi zoo has a pair of Bengal tigers and five white tigers three males and two females. Last week, Delhi got a lion and two lionesses from Gujarat. The capital will give two hippopotamuses to the western state.

In September, the Delhi zoo got an ostrich from the Chhatbir zoo and efforts are on to bring two more from Tamil Nadu soon. The ostrich population in the Delhi zoo is being revived after almost five years. The facility did not have an ostrich from July 2016 to March 2021, according to the officials.

(Cover: Delhi zoo PHOTO: Sashikala VP)