After battling for 16 days for its life, the ailing female tiger cub, Jui, succumbed to illness early on Tuesday morning, despite all efforts by a dedicated team of veterinarians.
The cub’s haemoglobin levels which were dangerously low, did not scale up despite transfusion on Sunday. Professor of pathology at Nagpur Veterinary College, Dr AG Bhandarkar, who conducted the post-mortem on the feline, said the cub had died of ulcerative gastroenteritis. There was also internal haemorrhage, he said.
The seven-month-old cub was rescued with its sibling from a Chandrapur village on November 2. It was put on life-saving drugs and had been administered nearly 200 ml of blood in a rare blood transfusion two days ago by a team of veterinarians.
A deeply disturbed and distraught Dr Sunil Bawaskar, who was leading the team of vets treating the weak, frail and traumatised cub, said, “It did not respond to any treatment and finally gave in to the illness around 5.20 am today.”
Dr Bawaskar, who was in tears after the cub’s death, is currently the in-charge of the historic Maharajbaug zoo, where Jaee and Jui (the two cubs) were shifted and were being treated round the clock. The other cub, Jaee, is doing well, the veterinarians said. They did not leave any stone unturned to save Jui. “We consulted several experts, wild life activists, and referred to books to do everything we could, but it proved futile,” Bawaskar, who did not sleep for four days, told reporters.
The cub was consigned to flames in the afternoon at the Maharajbaug precincts by Dr Bawaskar in the presence of several wildlife experts and senior forest officials, in a mood that was both sombre and mournful.
Survival of wild animals in such condition is considered to be rare. Even in the past, similar efforts to save animals have proved futile. The then field director of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve Nitin Kakodkar tried saving three tigers and a leopard during his tenure at the park. But none of them survived.
“Once we found a leopard in a trap set for wild boars. The animal had severe injuries. But it could not be saved despite a minor surgery,” said Kakodkar.
