‘Bijli’ gives birth to quintuplets

Bhubaneswar: In what would bring cheer to animal lovers, nine-year-old lioness Bijli gave birth to five cubs at Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP), on the outskirts of the City here, official sources said, Thursday. With this, the number of lions in the zoo went up to 26. Bijli was brought to NZP from Indore Zoo in 2020. The Asiatic lioness became a mother for the first time in July 2021 when she gave birth to three cubs. While two of them died, the third cub was not accepted by the mother. Hence, it was handreared by zookeepers. In March 2022, the lioness gave birth to a cub— Kamini. This time, too, it was hand-reared by zookeepers. It was in November 2022 when Bijli gave birth to five cubs. Of these, one died and two were given to Alipore Zoo a few days back.