A 15-year-old white tiger has died at the Delhi zoo due to old age-related issues, officials said on Thursday. Tiger Vijay, who was born at the zoo, died on Wednesday. He did not have any health problems, an official said. The zoo has two pairs of white tigers and four Bengal tigers — one male and three females — left. Normally, a white tiger has a lifespan of 12 to 14 years in the wild. As per RTI filed last year, the National Zoological Park located in the national capital has lost around 450 animals, including tigers, lions and others since 2018. The Delhi zoo, hosts 1,347 creatures and in 2019, it saw death of maximum animals which was 189. There were 123 deaths in 2020 and 137 in 2018.
In this period, there have been deaths of six tigers and tigresses and one lion. In 2020, the six-year-old Nirbhay died due to complications after given birth to two cubs on December 10.