Bangalore zoo names 6 month old tiger cub, 'Hima Das'

Bengaluru, July 31: The Bannerghatta Biological Park announced that they named a six month old Royal Bengal tiger cub in the zoo as 'Hima' on International Tiger Day 2019. In honour of the sprint queen Hima Das's stunning performance of bagging five gold medals in European races this month the Zoo has named it.

The authorities of the park hoped that by naming the tiger cub after the star athlete will not only attract more tourists to the park but will also raise awareness among the masses about the importance of tiger conservation.

Hima, who won the U-20 World Championships last year, grabbed her fifth gold of the month last week as she returned to her pet event, the 400m race, in the Czech Republic. She clocked 52.09 seconds, a season-best for Hima, overtaking her previous timing of 52.88 seconds, which she had recorded in Patiala earlier this year.

The officials stated that, in view of International Tiger Day a group of eight tigers were released to the safari area of Bannerghatta Biological Park for public viewing. This included the mother and seven cubs from two litters. Out of the four cubs from the second litter, the fourth cub has been named as Hima, to honour athlete Hima Das who won her fifth gold medal in the last 20 days.

On this day visitors got a first glimpse of the cub, along with its mother and other tigers in the safari area. The state government aims at spreading awareness among people about the endangered species with this initiative, and hopes to aggressively drive home the point about conservation.

Earlier, Indian cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Indian women's cricket team captain Mithali Raj were honoured in a similar manner as two sloth bears were named after them by the Bannerghatta Rescue Centre.