India News | Old Tigress from Rajaji Tiger Reserve Missing for a Year

Rishikesh, Jul 9 (PTI) An old tigress has been missing from Uttarakhand's Rajaji Tiger Reserve for a year and all efforts to trace her so far have failed.

When captured in a camera trap in 2005, experts had guessed its age to be five years. Going by that, the tigress should be 21 years now, which is considered the upper age limit for any big cat in wild conditions, officials said.

Rajaji Tiger Reserve Director Dharmesh Kumar Singh admitted that the tigress has reached its upper age limit and no evidence of its presence in the wild has been found so far.

A 21-year-old tigress named Machli in Rajasthan's Ranthambore Tiger Reserve and famous all over the world as Lady of The Lake had breathed her last in the presence of the reserve authorities.

Despite becoming helpless, old and blind Machli was taken good care of by the reserve authorities.

In a similar instance, a 21-year-old male tiger named Munna at Madhya Pradesh's Kanha Tiger Reserve was first kept in the buffer zone of the reserve when it grew old. It was then shifted to Bhopal zoo where it died while being looked after by the zoo authorities.

However, Rajaji Tiger Reserve authorities have not been able to trace the old tigress missing for a year.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)