Saturday July 4, 2009, 2:40 am
Why are these places obsessed with breeding white tigers? They have nothing to do with conservation, and I am surprised that this is going on considering the decline of the tiger in the wild.

Saturday July 4, 2009, 5:58 am
Those documents are never gonna appear unless forged... big money, part of the illegal wildlife trade... and it is awful to not be putting that kinda money into preserving habitat and wildlife in nature.... Thanks Maria!

LAHORE - Two white tigresses, currently ‘detained’ at the Lahore Zoo by the Customs Intelligence, are awaiting their status to be determined for the last four months, as it is believed that they have been smuggled into Pakistan from Indonesia in violation of international rules governing the import of rare species.

According to sources, an inquiry has also been launched by the government to ascertain whether or not the supplier had fulfilled all legal requirements before importing the animals, and if they actually belonged to the rare species of white tigers as claimed by the importer.

The Lahore Zoo management reportedly sought the necessary permission from the National Council for Conservation of Wildlife (NCCW), Islamabad to import two female tigers from Indonesia, but only after the animals were brought to Pakistan by the supplier, Mr Javaid Khan of Marine World in February 2009.

The permission was granted from the date of its issuance, but it was withdrawn after some time when it was brought into the notice of the NCCW that the animals had already reached the country. The Council also called for a report on how the tigresses were brought to the country without its permission.

The idea to import white tigresses for the Lahore Zoo was to breed them with a white tiger, already there in the Zoo, to get white offspring. But experts believe that these white big cats are albino, not belonging to any particular species, and hence had got little chance of reproducing white children.

Informed sources in the Lahore Zoo told this scribe that Director General Wildlife & Parks Punjab notified a committee on November 24, 2008 to ensure the procurement of Zoo exhibits strictly in accordance with the specifications, terms and conditions, good health and pedigree. The said committee met on March 2, 2009 to discuss the purchase of white tigers and other issues. Abdul Qadeer Mehal, Director Wildlife & Parks Punjab was its chairman while Syed Tauqeer Hussain Shah, Vice-Chairman Zoo Maintenance Committee Muhammad Naeem Bhatti, Under Secretary (Wildlife) and Director Lahore Zoo were notified as members.

The insiders told The Nation that during the meeting the Director Lahore Zoo could not produce import documents of the white female tigers and informed the committee that supplier had not given the documents as yet. The Director was, therefore, advised to obtain all the relevant documents from the supplier, which include: bill of landing, custom clearance documents, export CITES permit from the country of origin, import CITES permit from the NCCW, detailed pedigree of the animals with pedigree of three generations and health certificate of the animals.