Dudhwa Tiger Reserve

The Dudhwa Tiger Reserve consists of the Dudhwa National Park, the Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary and the Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh, India and is located in the alluvial plain, the doab of the Mohana and Suheli rivers.

The area is known for tigers, leopards, Swamp deer, rhinoceros, cheetal, Hog deer, Barking deer, sambar, Wild boar, ratel and around 400 species of birds and 90 species of fishes.

Genetic pollution in wild Bengal tigers

Tara, a hand reared supposedly Bengal tigress acquired from Twycross Zoo in England in July 1976 was trained by Billy Arjan Singh and released to the wild in Dudhwa National Park, India with the permission of India’s then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in an attempt to prove the experts wrong that zoo bred hand reared tigers can ever be released in the wild with success. In the 1990s, some tigers from Dudhwa were observed to have the typical appearance of Siberian tigers: white complexion, pale fur, large head and wide stripes. With recent advances in science it was subsequently found that Siberian tigers' genes have polluted the otherwise pure Bengal tiger gene pool of Dudhwa National Park. It was proved later that Twycross Zoo had been irresponsible and maintained no breeding records and had given India a hybrid Siberian-Bengal tigress instead. Dudhwa tigers constitute about 1% of India's total wild population, but the possibility exists of this genetic pollution spreading to other tiger groups, at its worst, this could jeopardize the Bengal tiger as a distinct subspecies.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

See also

• Pilibhit Tiger Reserve

References

1. ^ Menon, S. 1997. Tainted Royalty INDIA TODAY, November 17, 1997. article online
2. ^ Bagla, P. 1998. Indian tiger isn't 100 per cent "swadeshi". Indian Express Newspaper; November 19, 1998 article online
3. ^ Shankaranarayanan, P.; Singh, L. 1998. Mitochondrial DNA sequence divergence among big cats and their hybrids Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, India. article online
4. ^ Tiger Territory 2001. The Tale of Tara, 4: Tara's Heritage article online
5. ^ Tiger Territory 2001. Bengal article online

External links

• http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/09/stories/2008030954160500.htm
• Project Tiger