PONDA : Rana, the Royal Bengal tiger, which was brought to Bondla zoo with Sandya (tigress) through a friendly exchange from Indira Gandhi Zoological Park in Vishakhapatnam for a pair of Indian bison, died on Friday afternoon following chronic ailments on account of old age.
According to Bondla Zoo officials, tiger Rana had restrained itself from eating beef since October and had shown signs of weakness. Instead of beef he was being provided chopped chicken and other food. But during the last three days he had refused to eat chopped food too, and was being given milk and eggs.
During the last two months Rana’s health was gradually deteriorating and had become worse during the last three days.
During the wee hours of Friday, Rana had half litre of milk in his cage and in the morning at around 11 a.m. he had come out of his cage for a round, which turned out to be his last, informed the officials.
Later at around 1.15 p.m. Rana took his last breath.
“For the last three days, Rana was kept under observation of veterinary officers and routine check-ups were being conducted. But on Friday afternoon, all efforts to revive Rana failed, zoo workers and officials are saddened by his death,” said zoo manager Paresh Parab.
After carrying out post-mortem, as per the Central Zoo Authority guidelines, Rana was cremated at around 5 p.m. outside the zoo area in the presence of ASF Nandakumar Parab, RFO Damodar Salelkar, deputy conservator of forest Anil Kumar and other officers.
“The post-mortem report confirmed that most of Rana’s vital organs had become old and weak, failure of which led to his death,” informed Parab.
Rana was born in the year 2000 at Indira Gandhi Zoological Park in Vishakhapatnam and was brought to Goa in July 2009 along with his companion Sandya.
Rana and Sandya were the first pair of tigers at Bondla.
According to Parab, the average lifespan of tiger is 15-16 years and Rana has died during that lifespan. Even though Sandya too has become old, but she is healthy.
“After the arrival of the tiger pair, Bondla was getting a lot of attention from the people in and around the state. Tigers are considered to be at the apex of the food chain in the forest eco-system and now Rana’s absence in the zoo has made the zoo collection appear bit incomplete,” said one of the officials at the Bondla zoo.