Wild Life 29.11.1987

Man’s wanton and thoughtless destruction of wild life is endangering many species. The Department of Posts to draw the attention to the urgent need for conservation, issued a set of two stamps one on a rare and one on an endangered member of the cat family both of whom are predators at the apex of their respective ecological chains.

(Rs5.00) The SNOW LEOPARD, related to the common panther (Fells Pardus) is the predator supreme of the high mountains. Endowed with an exceptionally rich for coat to withstand the extreme cold of the uplands it inhabits, it has a remarkably bushy tail to prvent heat-loss and large pads to help it traverse snow. Its colour varies from crea to greyish white with large rosettes giving it a mottled apearance that assists its camouflage. Though it is found throughout the Himalayan range above tree-line where sufficient prey is available, its main population in India is in the trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh, Lahul and Spiti where bharal or blue sheep and ibex are found. It also preys upon Himalayan tahr, musk deer, marmots and heers and occasionally upon livestock. The snow leopard is at the apex of the food chain in the mountains and to safeguard it, protection has to be accorded to its prey species and the habitant of both the prey and the predator.

(Re1.00) The White Tiger has a pure white or an off-white coat with little brown stripes, often fewer than in a normal coloured tiger. The nose and the pads are light coloured and the eyes are light blue. The present history of the white tiger in captivity starts with the capture of a white cub by the Maharaja of Rewa in Sidhi district, Madhya Pradesh, in 1951. Named Mohan after the forests where he lived, the cub was maintained at Govindgarh Fort near Rewa. With selective breeding he became the progenitor of all the captive white tigers for the next three decades in India and abroad. In 1981, five white tigers were born to a pair of normal coloured tigers at the Nandankanan Biological Park in Bhubaneshwar (Orissa), to introduce a second strain of white tigers in captivity. There are at present 36 white tigers in 7 Zoological parks in the country.