Tiger finds place in Wildlife Week
TNN 4 October 2009, 05:55am IST
JAIPUR: From making history of sorts during its recent translocation from the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve to Sariska, the tiger is again in the news and this time for the Wildlife Week being observed by the forest department.
The Wildlife Week celebrations began on October 1 and will continue till October 7. According to C P Singh of the Jaipur Zoo, “The zoo will remain open on all these days despite holidays. We have been holding a host of quizes, debates, essays and debate competitions for students upto standard 12. The entry fee to the zoo has also been exempted for students during this week,” he said.
For the first time the tiger has found a prominent place in the Wildlife Week celebrations being held at Jaipur Zoo. The Philately Society of Rajasthan has put up an exhibition of stamps from across the world on various kinds of tigers that exist.
Though the exhibition is not exhaustive, but the secretary of the Rajasthan Philately, Rajesh Paharia, is hopeful of evoking the interest of the masses through these stamps.
“The tiger has been grabbing all the news and that is how we struck on the idea of having an exhibition of stamps on the tiger. So far, it has evoked good response. People are more interested in special covers on tiger rather than small stamps,” he said.
Paharia has put up the exhibition along with his son Divyansh. “He helped me collect all the information on the tigers,” he added. Paharia’s collection includes 300 stamps on tigers.
“The exhibition does not have my entire collection. But it does contain all major types of tigers like the Malayan, Indo-Chinese, Siberian, Sumatran and of course the Royal Bengal tiger. The stamps also include those released by Tanzania, The Netherlands, Congo and Nicargua. In short I have exhibited stamps from those countries which has tiger but Europe, which doesnot have it also has stamps on it which are not on display,” Paharia said.
The exhibits also include Cancellations shaped in the form of a tiger or its head. “There is a Cancellation of a White Tiger released by Madhya Pradesh that has been drawing attention. It is a rare collection. But stamps of the Royal Bengal tiger are a beauty to behold,” he added.
