Happy b'day Vijay: White tiger's birthday celebrated with gusto

National Zoological Park (NZP) of Delhi celebrated the birthday of the white tiger named Vijay on Thursday. Vijay came to the limelight back in September 2014, when in a spine chilling incident, it attacked a 20-year old youth, who fell into its enclosure accidentally and was mauled to death.

To celebrate the birthday of this white big cat, the students of Ramjas School, RK Puram along with the zoo authority organised a rally that began from the main gate of NZP and continued till the enclosure of Vijay. Renu Singh, the director of NZP flagged off the procession.

Speaking on the occasion, Renu Singh said, "Vijay is an excellent tiger, who was born in our zoo. We organised a morning walk today, where the school students participated. We will, now, hold a quiz programme on Vijay with the students. We will continue these activities for creating public awareness as we consider it as a part of zoo education programme."

For the first time, the zoo celebrated the birthday of an animal. Following the rituals of a typical birthday celebration, there was cake cutting ceremony and special chicken was offered to Vijay in its meal. School students took part in the walk namely 'Walk for Vijay' shouting slogans 'One step towards Vijay'.

When asked how she came up with such an idea, Renu Singh replied, "I was the director of Lucknow Zoo, where we used to celebrate the birthday of animals. So, it's not something new for me. In the upcoming days, we will also celebrate the birthday of our oldest Chimpanzee. Her name is Rita."