BAHAWALPUR: Four newborn cubs of a Bengal tigress, Rani, made their first public appearance on Monday in the Bahawalpur Zoo, attracting a large number of visitors, including children.

As the news of their birth broke, the locals as well as the people from the adjacent cities thronged the zoo to have a glimpse of the cubs.

Zoo curator Dr Tariq said the Bengal tigress, aged 32, gave birth to the cubs following hormone therapy. They were kept in the safe custody away from the general public for few days due to security reasons and they were shown to the public on Eidul Fitr.

Talking to Dawn, Dr Tariq claimed the aged Bengal tigress conceived after hormone therapy, extraordinary care and proper feeding in captivity. He claimed that by giving birth to four cubs, Rani had created history and projected the name of the Bahawalpur Zoo and the Punjab Wildlife Department in the whole world as it was the oldest tigress that conceived and gave birth to cubs. He claimed that the pregnancy of an aged Bengali tigress with hormone therapy was also a rare phenomenon in wildlife history, which the Bahawalpur Zoo had successfully achieved.

Zoo claims Rani made record by giving birth to cubs at 32 through hormone therapy

According to the zoo curator, the tigress usually gives birth to two cubs or triplets but seldom four cubs. He said newborns were all females and with the new arrivals, the number of tigers in the zoo had risen to 11. He went on to say the zoo would be a focal centre in the coming years in respect of a fertile centre for tigers and it would also be able to sell the young tigers to other zoos not only in the country but abroad, bringing handsome income and foreign exchange.

DOG BITE: A girl, Unishra Fatimah (7), was seriously injured in a dog-bite incident in Yazman.

She was provided first aid by Rescue 1122 and was shifted to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Yazman for further treatment. A dog attacked her and wounded her leg when she was playing outside her home.

MOVEMENT: The leaders of the movement for the Bahawalpur province, including its chief executive Nawaz Naji, Akram Ansari, ex-parliamentarian Syed Tabish Alwari, Hazoor Bakhsh and Asia Kamal, have pledged on the martyrs day of the movement to continue their struggle to achieve the restoration of the Bahawalpur province.

At a gathering under the auspices of the movement, they paid homage to the two martyrs, Hafiz Muhammad Shafique and Muhammad Azim Dadpotra, who laid down their lives 53 years ago during the brutal firing of police force on a big public rally outside Farid Gate for the restoration of Bahawalpur province on April 20, 1970.

The rally, led by the late prince Mamoonul Rashid Abbasi, a son of the late Bahawalpur Nawab Sadiq Khan Abbasi, was demanding the creation of the Bahawalpur province during the martial law of Gen Yahya Khan.

Teargas was used against the participants in the rally while fire was also opened by police, killing two protesters on the spot while scores of them had suffered injuries. The army was called after a curfew was imposed.

The leaders of the current movement reiterated their demand for a separate province and called upon the PML-N leaders to fulfill their commitment with the people of Bahawalpur as Mian Nawaz Sharif and Mian Shehbaz Sharif had pledged to meet the people of the people for creation of a province in the area where the Bahawalpur state existed.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2023