In a bizarre incident, a white tiger which had been brought to the Indore zoo from Bhilai about a month, succumbed to a snake bite on Saturday morning. The incident came to light when one of the zoo keepers found the white tiger RsRajjan’ circling around inside his captivation anxiously and latter started oozing out of his mouth. He immediately informed his seniors and accordingly medical care was offered to him but in vain and the tiger finally succumbed.
According to Indore zoo in-charge Dr Uttam Yadav, “The snake slithered inside the tiger’s enclosure. They fought with each other, and the snake was seriously injured. The snake had bitten Rajjan and that was the cause of his death, Yadav said adding that when the zoo officials saw the tiger, its nose was bleeding and foam was coming out of his mouth. “The snake also suffered from paralysis,” said the zoo in-charge. As per the zoo officials, the fight may have taken place for about 10 minutes. Post-mortem of the white tiger was carried out at a veterinary hospital in Indore.
The death of the male tiger could be termed as a blow to the zoo as it had a few female felines but had no white male tiger until it arrived at the zoo from Bilaspur last month. The zoo has more than 300 animals, including three white tigresses Diya, Shivani and their mother Sita, but no male white tiger. The purpose of bringing the white tiger was to increase the population of white tigers, to keep the generation going. Significantly white tigers are a rare breed of tigers and first such white cub was found in the forests of princely state of Rewa in 1948. The Maharaja Martand Singh had kept the cub inside his fort and named him Mohan.