new delhi after a gap of seven years delhi zoo has seen success in tiger breeding with the birth of three white cubs the cubs mother sita a white tigress was born in the zoo in 2015 zoo officials said the cubs and the mother are healthythe cubs were born to sita and a sevenyearold white tiger named vijay2 on august 24 with this the national zoological park now boasts seven white tigers and four royal bengal tigers a 15yearold tiger vijay1 had died last week due to old agerelated issuessita is nursing the cubs regularly and taking proper care a team is keeping roundtheclock watch on them said national zoological park director dharamdeo raiaccording to zoo officials there was no successful breeding of tigers in the past few years though attempts were made in 2020 a sixyearold white tigress nirbhaya mated with a royal bengal tiger though nirbhaya gave birth to two cubs on december 10 2020 she died three days later due to complications a third cub which remained inside nirbhaya ruptured the tigress uterus however the first cub died a day after the mothers death and the second one also succumbed to acute illness a few days laterthough the new cubs are healthy zoo officials are taking precautions we have ensured that there is no disturbance around the mother and the cubs we are also monitoring them through cctv cameras plenty of food and continuous water supply have been ensured said a zoo officialthe cubs are expected to be released in an enclosure after three months a newborn cub drinks the mothers milk 1516 times in 24 hours it takes nearly 2022 days for their eyes to open said raihe added delhi zoo is one of the participating zoos in conservation breeding of tigers the cubs birth is a big step in this direction we hope in the coming days we will be able to make our visitors more aware about the importance of wildlife in a balanced ecosystem and the role of zoos in conservation