Sanjay Gandhi National Park's star tiger Anand loses battle with cancer

Anand had stopped eating since last few days

The 10-year old captive tiger Anand from Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), who was battling cancer for a while, died in the wee hours of Thursday.

According to a statement released by Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF), "SGNP regrets to inform of the death of Anand, age 10 years male Royal Bengal tiger at 5 am on Thursday. Anand was born in SGNP to tiger Basanti and Palash. Anand had been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of malignant cancer. The pathology department of Bombay Veterinary College conducted the post mortem of Anand on Thursday. He had lost a considerable amount of body weight since March 2020 and had also been diagnosed with chronic renal (kidney) failure."

Anand's condition was being monitored by a team of senior veterinarians and faculty of Mumbai veterinary College.

"He had not eaten for the last ten days and finally succumbed on Thursday morning due to cancer-related complications like progressive cachexia (loss of body condition) and multi-organ failure. The remains were consigned to flames after the post mortem examination, as per the prescribed protocol," added the statement by CCF.

On June 3, mid-day had reported on how once among the star attraction of Sanjay Gandhi National Park's (SGNP) safari - Anand had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and that his condition was said to be critical.

At present, there are total five Royal Bengal tigers at SGNP - four female and one male.

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