Death comes calling too often at Ahmedabad zoo

Zoo superintendent R K Sahu said Vijay was perfectly normal till the evening before.

“The problem began late in the evening and the tiger died at 2 a m. In the morning, we sent the body to Anand Veterinary College for a post-mortem. The report blamed kidney failure,” he said.

Sahu maintained that there was no laxity in the observation and care of the animal. “ALthough Vijay had stopped eating for a day, it was not taken as an alarming sign as this sort of behaviour is common during the breeding season,” he said. But sources in the zoo said negligence had crept into the state’s biggest zoo. “Nothing was done to save Vijay despite the fact that the attention of the authorities was drawn to the cat’s ill-health,” said a source. The source pointed out that Vijay was one of the healthiest beasts the zoo had.

Similarly, two leopards have died in the past two months. While a male leopard known as the “Vadnagar Leopard” died on January 3, 15-year-old leopard, Raja, died on September 6. But Sahu said both had lived longer than is the average life span of leopards.

However, though the Vadnagar leopard was quite old, it did not die of old age. Sahu admitted that the cat died of asphyxiation. “After it had finished its meal, I was told that the cat was choking and had fallen down. It soon died. We carried out a post-mortem, which revealed that a piece of meat had got stuck in the leopard’s respiratory tract. But Raja died of old age,” claims Sahu. In the face of criticism about the unusually high death rate Sahu claimed, “Death rate at our zoo is just 12-15 per cent, which is much lower than the national average,” he said.