Lying shut for 17 months, the tiger safari at Ludhiana zoo was thrown open to public on Tuesday following the much-awaited debut of a new pair of Royal Bengal tigers, marking the revival of the facility’s biggest attraction.A pair of Royal Bengal Tiger — Badal and Bijli — in Ludhiana zoo. (Gurpreet Singh/HT)Christened Badal and Bijli, both below five years of age, the male-female pair has been provided by the Balasaheb Thackeray Gorewada International Zoological Park in Maharashtra’s Nagpur following a request by the Ludhiana zoo authorities.After undergoing acclimatisation for a month, the tigers were released into their enclosure, resuming the safari that had remained closed since December 2024.With the arrival of Badal and Bijli, Ludhiana zoo now becomes only the second zoo in Punjab to house tigers. The Mahendra Chaudhary Zoological Park at Mohali district’s Chhatbir is the state’s only other zoo with tigers, currently holding a sizeable population of 10 big cats. The latest addition came in November 2025 after the birth of three female cubs Garima, Gunjan and Ghazal, born to tigress Gauri.The pair’s transfer has also bumped up Ludhiana zoo’s wild cat numbers to four. Earlier, in 2024, the facility had added a pair of rescued leopards, brought in from a wildlife rehabilitation centre in Shimla’s Tutikandi.Amanpreet Singh, a zoo official, shared, “We required tigers to revive the safari facility and contacted the Nagpur zoo, which came through. The safari has now been reopened for visitors. An entry fee of ₹50 per person has been fixed for those wishing to see the tigers. Special arrangements, including coolers inside the enclosure, have also been made to help the animals cope with the summer heat.”The safari’s reopening comes as a significant boost for the zoo, which had been without a tiger since the death of Aman, its lone surviving feline, due to age-related ailments in December 2024. The prolonged closure ever since had left wildlife enthusiasts and regular visitors disappointed.Over the past 13 years, the facility has lost eight tigers to illness and old age. Before Aman, Nav died in 2024 following a blood infection, while Chirag passed away in 2023. Earlier, Money and Icchran died of natural causes in 2020, Deepak in 2019, and tigresses Mohini and Elaichi in 2013 following a bacterial infection.Despite the decline in its tiger population over the years, the zoo, established in 1988 and spread over 138 acres, continues to house a diverse range of wildlife, including blackbuck, sambar, barking deer, Indian jackal, porcupine and emu, along with several bird species such as peacocks, pheasants and ducks.