BHOPAL: The roar of white tigers will once again reverberate in Madhya Pradesh’s Vindhya region, where the feline was first found in 1951, with the world’s first ‘White Tiger Safari’ to open for public at Mukundpur in Rewa division on April 3.
Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest Prakash Javadekar, Steel and Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, among others, will dedicate to the public the world’s first Mukundupur White Tiger Safari Zoo and Rescue Centre on Sunday, state Public Relations and Energy Minister Rajendra Shukla told PTI on Friday.
The zoo will have three white tigers, including a male named Raghu and two females – Vindhya and Radha.
“The mention of white tigers has always thrilled me since childhood. I was fortunate enough to see a roaring white tiger, named Mohan which was caught by the then King, Maharaj Martand Singh in Govindgarh Palace. Singh caught it on May 27, 1951 while hunting tigers in Deva village forest area in Sidhi district,” said Shukla, who belongs to Vindhya region.
“This white tiger cub (Mohan), which was captured from a cave near Kormar river by the hunting team led by Martand Singh later became the progenitor of all the white tigers in the world,” he said.
Author Jairam Shukla, who has written a coffee table book ‘Tale of the White Tiger’, said, “It is a progeny of Royal Bengal Tiger that has got the amazing white hue because of a gene mutation. It is not a different species, but a genuine Indian tiger.”
