One of the two white tigers in Lucknow Zoo to get bride soon

LUCKNOW: One among Jai and Vijay, two white tiger brothers born in September 2014 at Lucknow Zoo, will be moved out to another zoo to get bride for other.

“We have a white tigress Vishakha and she has two male offspring, Jai and Vijay. Since brothers can’t mate, a tiger will be sent to Delhi Zoo in exchange of a tigress from there,” said RK Singh, Lucknow Zoo director.

For the animal exchange programme, formalities have been completed and permission has also been obtained from Central

Zoo Authority (CZA), the apex body to allow animal exchange between zoos in India.

The Lucknow Zoo officials said that the decision to shift one of them has been taken, but which one among them will be shifted is yet to be decided. The decision might be based upon the affection between the mother and the two cubs.

Father of Jai and Vijay, Aryan too had a similar story. Aryan was born in 2001 in Lucknow Zoo and its sibling Rupa was shifted to Kanpur Zoo to bring in a bride, Sona, a white tigress from there, but Sona died in 2015. Aryan paired with Vishakha from Bhilai and had two cubs – Jai and Vijay.

Aryan died on November 24, 2017 and since then the mother white tigress and her two children have been living on the zoo campus. “The time of shifting will be decided in a couple of days,” said Singh.