Three white tigers celebrate B'day in Zoo

Bhubaneswar, Jul 29 (UNI) With much fanfare the three white tigers today celebrated their birthday for the third consecutive year inside their enclosures in presence of large gatherings.

'Rishi,' 'Sitesh' and 'Prachi', born to normal coloured tigers - Rohit and Sailaja-- celebrated their first birthday on August 1,2006 when they were only one year old. Today they turned four.

In a unique decision, Nandankanan zoo authorities decided to celebrate their birthday with a different flavour as part of its awareness programme on conservation of tiger, one of the endangered species, to catch the imagination of the visitors.

Nandankanan Zoological Park Director Ajit Kumar Pattnaik said zoo furniture were presented to the three white tigers as birthday gift to enrich their enclosures.

The three tigers, two of them brothers and third sister, had a good bath in the morning and a special treat by the animal keepers. A specially made cake was cut in presence of the school children and the visitors to celebrate the occasion.

Mr Pattnaik maintained that the objective behind the celebration was to remind the wildlife lovers and the people that the tiger population was declining and ''it is the time for all of us to think and act with all seriousness about the conservation of this highly threatened species.'' UNI DP KK RN1753