The National Tiger Conservation Authority has refused to give its nod for reintroduction of white tigers in Madhya Pradesh saying they have no "conservation value", a decision that may come as a setback to the state's efforts to secure these rare species.
The decision was taken sometime ago during a meeting of NTCA's technical committee and officials of Madhya Pradesh Forest department.
According to a note of the meeting, the committee perused the response of Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to this issue, raised by the Chief Wildlife Warden of Madhya Pradesh, to refuse the approval for reintroduction of white tigers.
"WII has already made it amply clear that the reintroduction of white tiger into natural habitat is not desirable as white tiger is not a separate sub-species of tiger but only an aberration of the Royal Bengal Tiger and hence it has no conservation value," it said.
The note was accessed by Bhopal-based wildlife activist Ajay Dubey exercising his Right to Information (RTI).
"Ministry of Environment and Forests should intervene and ask NTCA to rethink on the matter. We will also write to the Ministry," said Dubey.
The state government has been making several efforts to get a pair of white tigers for Sanjay Tiger Reserve in Sidhi district.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had also written to his Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik, seeking a pair of white tigers from Nandankanan zoo for the state's proposed zoo-cum-rescue centre at Mukundpur, near Govindgarh.
However, the efforts to get the tigers from Odisha could not be materialised.
There is no white tiger in wild or natural habitat in Madhya Pradesh. The state has about three such tigers in captivity.
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