There is an interesting story to the discovery of the first White Bengal tiger. In India one of the royalties which was led by by Maharaja Shri Martand Singh of Rewa had killed a white tigeress. Later, four cubs of this dead tigeress were found. All of them were shot except for the white cub.
The Maharaja of Rewa offered his guest, the Maharaja Ajit Singh of Jodhpur, the honour of shooting the white cub, but he declined. After shooting a white tiger in 1948 the Maharaja of Rewa had resolved to capture one, as his father had done in 1915, at his next opportunity. Water was used to lure the thirsty cub into a cage and once captured he was housed in the unused palace at Govindgarh in the erstwhile harem courtyard. The Maharaja named him ‘Mohan’, which roughly translates as ‘Enchanter’.
All the white tigers in the world today are the descendants of this cub.
Contrary to popular belief, White Bengal tigers are not a separate species in their own right, but are a mutant form of the orange Bengal tigers.
In the public eye, white, or more correctly, chinchilla tigers are perhaps the colour which is to be most admired. The correct term for these tigers is chinchilla albinistic: blue eyed, lacking in phaeomelanin, pale-coated, but having a pattern.
White Bengal tigers habitats are mainly Dense forests and lush grasslands.
