February 4, 2000.

New Delhi: Even as tigers in the wild are a threatened lot, an Indian zoo is considering sterilising males of the species as it is faced with a problem of too many tigers to feed and care for.

The Chhatbir Zoological Park, spread over 500 acres in Patiala, in the northern state of Punjab, is literally bursting at the seams with too many big cats, the outcome of a hugely successful captive breeding programme.

The zoo got its first tigress from the forests of northeastern state of Assam in 1977. Since then the tiger population in the zoo has grown to 40, giving it the distinction of having the largest captive tiger population anywhere in the country, reports the Asian Age daily.

But the huge expense of feeding and caring for the animals is proving to be a drain on Chhatbir's shrinking resources, say officials.

"We spend between Rs 70,000 ($1,627) and Rs 80,000 ($1,860) a year just on the food for each tiger. Medicines, maintaining the enclosures and other peripherals are all extras," one official told the daily.

The zoo's open moated enclosures, built originally for four to five big cats, now house at least twice that number. The problem of plenty has spread to other species also, with a surplus in evidence among other animals bred in captivity as well.

While zoo authorities are likely to begin vasectomies on selected male tigers as a measure to control the tiger population, they are also looking at the option of exchanging the animals with zoos and wildlife parks outside India. In the last 10 years, at least 10 tigers were gifted or exchanged with zoos in Delhi, and other neighbouring cities.

The possibility of releasing the surplus tigers into the wild, has been considered but it would require massive funding, which the zoo cannot afford. Besides, zoo officials point out, "our animals just do not know or have the killing instinct of wild animals."

There is an estimated 3,176 to 4,556 tigers in India, according to the last count. The total world tiger population is estimated to be between 5,183 and 7,277, down from about 100,000 at the beginning of this century.

Indian wildlife experts, worried about the dwindling numbers of the wild cats, mostly due to poaching - one kilogram of tiger bone sells for anything between $125 and $250 in the international market - began a headcount of tigers in the country last November for the 1999 Tiger Census.

Source: India Abroad News Service