: A wild Royal Bengal Tiger (RBT) that had sneaked into the Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP) here over a decade ago is now suffering from arthritis, zoo sources said on Sunday.
The male tiger that had been rehabilitated at the NZP in 2013 is suffering from arthritis in its waist and facing difficulties to walk properly, said an official of the zoo.
“The tiger, named as Nandan, has been kept on the premises of a veterinary hospital at NZP. Indramani Nath, the chief of orthopaedic department at OUAT, is now treating the 17-year-old big cat. The veterinarians have collected blood samples from the ailing tiger and conducted x-ray on it after tranquillization,” added the official.
Notably, the RBT had strayed into Nandankanan from the wild in 2013. The zoo officials had then suspected that the tiger might have come from either Satkosia forests in Angul district or Khuntuni reserve forests in Cuttack district in search of a female mate.
The tiger had mated with tigress Megha and fathered two cubs in 2016 and three more in 2021 at the NZP, sources said.
