SGNP's lone white tigress Rebecca succumbs to cancer

Rebecca, the famous white tigress from Sanjay Gandhi National Park passed away on Saturday afternoon after prolonged illness. The 20-year old tigress was suffering from Melanoma-a type of skin cancer. (Read here)

N Vasudevan, CCF, SNGP said "I regret to inform you that Rebecca, a white tigress in SGNP passed away at 1:45 pm today. She was suffering from melanoma, a form of skin cancer, since February 2015. She had undergone 4 surgeries and 6 sessions of chemo, which helped in prolonging her life to about 8 months, which is much more than the usual life expectancy in such cases of about 3 to 4 months. She was 19 years old and nearly reached the normal life span of a tiger."

Rebecca.

The expert team of doctors including in-house veterinary Dr. Sanjiv B. Pinjarkar, Dr. C.C Wakankar retired professor Bombay Veterinary College, Dr. P.R Chaudari, Scientific officer at TATA research center (ACTREC) and Dr. Manish Pingle, Wildlife Vet have been trying their level best to save the tigress. The team had even performed few operations during which the cancerous tumors from some of the portion of her face was removed.

Even after doing four operations in last few months, the cancer had once again relapsed in her neck and there was a tumor that was seen around the it which was growing rapidly.

According to an official from, SGNP, "The tigress was in critical condition from last two days and had stopped eating food. At around 2 pm, on Saturday, the tigress was declared dead."

An expert team of consulting doctors had also visited the tigress on Friday afternoon. The tigress was bathed on Friday and medicine was applied to her wounds. Looking at her critical condition it was decided that the animal will not be operated. The authorities have not yet decided when she would be cremated and the decision about the same will only be taken after speaking with authorities.

Rebecca was brought to SGNP from Auranagabad Zoo in the year 2010.

It is also said that taxidermy might be done on Rebecca but there has been no confirmation on the same.

Now SGNP has only one white tiger - Bajirao and he is also over 15 years of age.