Tirupati:

A 17-year-old Royal Bengal tiger died at Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park in the temple town of Tirupati on Monday.

According to Zoo officials, the tiger named ‘Madhu’ was brought to the zoo from Banergatta Biological Park in Bengaluru in 2018.

Zoo Curator C. Selvam said the tiger was under their care for nearly seven years. However, due to the old age and health problems, it was not in a display enclosure (for the public) for the last two years.

The official said the tiger was not taking food and water for the last two months. A team of pathologists from Sri Venkateswara Veterinary College performed a postmortem.

The postmortem report revealed that the tiger died of old age and multi-organ failure.

This is the third tiger death at the Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park this year. Two of them were Royal Bengal tigers.

In July, a five-year-old tigress, Julie, died of illness. It was brought to SVZP from Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Zoological Park in Uttar Pradesh under an animal exchange programme on February 13 this year.

The big cat, which was in the display enclosure, sustained an injury on her left hind leg and the ventral part of the abdomen while playing. Since then, it had stopped consuming food properly.

In March, a seven-year-old male Bengal tiger died after a prolonged illness. The tiger was born blind in 2016 at the animal rescue centre of the zoo. It started having epileptic seizures, a nervous disorder, from 2017.

Spread over 5,532 acres, the Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park is one of the largest zoos in Asia.

According to the information on the zoo website, it houses 31 species of mammals, 46 species of birds and 7 species of reptiles.

In February this year, the zoo witnessed a tragedy. A man was mauled to death by lions when he jumped into their enclosure.

The victim was identified as Prahlad Gujjar (34), hailing from Bansur municipality in Alwar district of Rajasthan.

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