PESHAWAR A Siberian tiger has become liability for the cash-strapped NWFP Wildlife Department, it is learnt.

The tiger had been imported by Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, son of Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, from Canada, and was gifted to the Frontier government.

'The two-year-old animal requires at least three kilogram boneless fresh meat daily,' said an official. 'We need Rs20,000 per month only to feed the tiger, which is not less than a blow for the department facing financial constraints.'

Perhaps, obsessed with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's electoral sign — tiger — Hamza Sharif brought the Siberian tiger to keep at the family's Raiwind Palace in Lahore.

But the media-triggered debate forced the Sharifs to shift the animal to a proper location and they gave it the Frontier government.

Wildlife conservators said the Siberian tiger could not survive below 20 degree centigrade temperature and required a proper refrigerating system. 'You have to keep the animal in a refrigerated cage or shift to natural habitat otherwise it dies,' said a wildlife expert.

Sources said that the department initially refused to receive the tiger. 'We refused to bring the tiger to the province because of lack of facilities and resources,' said an official. 'The issue was discussed by the two chief ministers (Punjab and Frontier provinces) and finally the department was asked to bring the animal from Lahore,' he said.

'The Siberian tiger is liability for the department. We can't leave it in a natural habitat because it is a crossbreed animal lacking qualities to prey for itself. It has lost wildness and can't catch prey in the forests,' he said.

Sources said that the NWFP Wildlife Department was designing special cages for the animal. Staff would be deputed for looking after the tiger. In winter it would be kept in Abbottabad and in summer it would be shifted to cold areas in Galyat.