Raghav at the zoo. Picture by Eastern Projections

Guwahati, Feb. 23: Raghav, a four-year-old male Royal Bengal tiger in the Assam state zoo in Guwahati, will soon leave for a new home at the Tata Steel Zoological Park in Jamshedpur.

“It will be a very sad parting. Raghav was born here,” said divisional forest officer Narayan Mahanta.

“Our only hope is that he is shifted before summer sets in otherwise he will find it very difficult to travel all the distance,” he said.

The Central Zoo Authority has approved the exchange of Raghav for four jungle fowls and two emus.

Mahanta said things would be finalised within a couple of days.

“I am just waiting for the official communiqué from the Central Zoo Authority. I received a mail giving the go ahead,” he said.

At present, the state zoo has nine Royal Bengal tigers, of which five are male and four female.

Raghav was born in the state zoo to Anirudha and Swati.

While Anirudha was captured from Tezpur in 2004, Swati was brought to Assam from a zoo in Karnataka.

Raghav and Ragini were born to the pair.

Sources said the Jamshedpur zoo had requested the Royal Bengal tiger several years ago in exchange for a pair of emus.

However, the Assam zoo authorities were not willing to part with the tigers.

“Tigers are always the main attraction in a zoo,” a zoo official said.

However, two incidents involving the tigers in the zoo forced the authorities to change their mind and reduce the tiger population.

While two Royal Bengal tigers, a mother and her cub, managed to slip out of the enclosure last month, a visitor was mauled by another royal Bengal tiger a couple of years ago.

The zoo veterinarian, B.K. Gogoi, said the zoo has a sizeable Royal Bengal tiger population and it was time that a few tigers were sent to other zoos in the country through exchange programmes.

“We are expecting a few cubs from Ragini in the days to come. She has been paired with another tiger. There will be an increase in the tiger population soon,” Gogoi said.

Mahanta said the Jamshedpur zoo has a young female tiger and Raghav would be paired with the female tiger for breeding.