Afghan war delays arrival of Siberian tigers

bangalore: the ongoing afghan war has forced seven siberian tigers to wait for two more months to permanently settle down in bannerghatta national park. the big cats, rescued from different parts of europe, will be arriving here only in the first week of february, conservator of forests and park director g. vidyasagar said. "they were to originally arrive here last month.the journey was delayed due to the uncertain global situation in the wake of september 11, terrorist attack on the united states,'' he told the press. bornfree, a non-governmental organisation, is bearing the expenses of the travel and the upkeep of the animals in the age group of three to six years. three of them are male. originally, they were to be airlifted by amritraj britannia aircraft to goa and shifted by road to bangalore. as they had temporarily suspended the services, bornfree brooded over the idea of airlifting by royal air force aircraft. but that was also dropped. now, they will be arriving in chennai by amritraj britannia aircraft and reach here by road. a ngo representative is currently on a visit to the city to study the facilities for the big cats. ``in case of minor modifications, the department will carry them out to keep the park ready to receive the `foreign guests','' vidyasagar pointed out. in 1987, bornfree had sent seven tigers. the park had received scores of big cats rescued from different parts of india mostly from circuses following a government order. at present, it has 24 tigers, four of them being rescued ones. in the last six months, the park had received 64 lions in addition to the existing seven kings of forest. "we can accommodate 30 more lions. we are waiting for the system to be stabilised fully. now it is more or less stabilised,'' the official said. he said bornfree has mooted the idea of inviting three or four karnataka forest department officials to the united kingdom to study the facilities and the upkeep of animals. however, the proposal was to be cleared by the union government. vidyasagar said the centre had agreed in principle for a rs 3.7 crore butterfly park in bannerghatta. the centrally-funded scheme would have the participation of the forest department, biotechnology department, the university of agricultural sciences and non governmental organisations.