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Away for 2 yrs, MP's tiger returns to public eye at zoo

The nearly 12-year-old feline was caught in the wilderness of Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh in July, 2011. After that, it lived in the Bhopal Van Vihar before coming to the Delhi zoo in March, 2014.

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Bittoo was brought from Madhya Pradesh to Delhi zoo on March 2014
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Away from the limelight for almost two years, Bittoo, the wild Royal Bengal Tiger in the National Zoological Park, is finally out in public view. The big cat had been taken away from the main enclosure after it tried to escape by scaling the boundary wall of its ennclosure.

The nearly 12-year-old feline was caught in the wilderness of Bandhavgarh in Madhya Pradesh in July, 2011. After that, it lived in the Bhopal Van Vihar before coming to the Delhi zoo in March, 2014.

In 2014, a white tiger at the zoo, Vijay, killed a man who had fallen in to the enclosure. Soon afterwards, Bittoo climbed a tree and then scaled the boundary wall of the enclosure. Panicked at the thought of another mishap, the authorities decided to take Bittoo away from the public eye.

"This is a wild animal. It is not easy to determine its reaction to public. That is why we had taken it away from the enclosure," a zoo official said.

Finally, the zoo officials noticed that Bittoo's behaviour had turned calm. After making some necessary arrangements in the enclosure, they decided to bring the tiger to the main enclosure for a few hours every morning. The big cat was was released in the bigger enclosure on Friday, when the zoo remains closed for public. At present, there are five Royal Bengal Tigers in the zoo -- two males, including Bittoo, and three females. Except Bittoo, all other members of this endangered species were being released alternately for public viewing until last Friday.

Meanwhile, the zoo authorities have made necessary arrangements for the animals in view of the summer months. As the temperature hits 40 degrees Celsius mark, ponds have been filled with water and pressure pumps are being used to bathe the wild cats. The meat intake of tigers has also been reduced by 1-2 kg, besides providing them with vitamin supplements and electro powder.

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