Thrissur: A seven-year-old tigress, Durga, died at the Thrissur Zoo in Kerala on Thursday, becoming the 100th Indian tiger to die this year.
Durga hailed from the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala.
Dhanesh Kumar, the Divisional Forest Officer of the Wayanad sanctuary, said that the tigress was undergoing treatment at the zoo when she died.
“We spotted her wandering outside the forest area since September 27. She seemed weak and was hunting goats and cattle calves. We caught her on October 9 and took her to the zoo. She died there on Thursday,” Kumar said.
He said that the tigress was not tagged and they named her Durga as she was caught on the day of “Durga Ashtami”.
“She had an injured right front limb and a missing canine that could be due to a fight with some animal in the forest,” Vinoy, the veterinarian doctor at Thrissur zoo said.
As per the Wildlife Protection Society of India’s records, 100 tigers have died in India in 2016. Of this, 36 died due to poaching. The number of tigers who died in 2015 was 91.
