Mumbai: Sanjay Gandhi National Park loses another tigress

Tigress Beauty, passed away on Saturday, just three months after the death of another tigress at the park; experts suspect Beauty’s death may have been caused by bladder infection

Nearly five months after she was brought to Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the 2.5-year-old tigress, Beauty, passed away on Saturday night from what the experts suspect was a chronic bladder infection.

Beauty was named after ex-chief minister Prithviraj Chavan’s wife, Satvasheela (beautiful), and was brought to SGNP to boost the popularity of its tiger safari. File pic

The tigress was brought to the national park to boost the popularity of the tiger safari, but had been ailing since her arrival in the city. She is the second tigress to have died at the park this year, following the demise of four-year-old Puja in February.

Also Read: SGNP's tigress Puja dies after long illness

mid-day had reported that Beauty had fallen ill and had stopped eating food just a week after she was brought to the city on December 15 (‘Ailing Beauty: National Park’s tigress takes ill’, December 27). She had fallen ill yet again in January, and was suffering from indigestion and problems in relieving herself. The tigress had also shown signs of aggression when she was brought to Mumbai.

mid-day’s report on December 27

However the SGNP authorities had then said that the reason for the same was change in weather. Sources said the veterinarians who treated her now suspect that she may have been suffering from chronic cystitis (bladder infection) even before she got here.

Also Read: Sanjay Gandhi National Park's sole white tigress has cancer

Speaking to mid-day, SGNP veterinarian Dr Sanjiv Pinjarkar said, “Since last week, Beauty had not been eating and was facing problems in passing urine and stool. We were closely monitoring her condition but she died on Saturday night at around 8 pm. The reason for her death might be chronic cystitis; the post-mortem has been done and we are awaiting the final reports to know the exact reason for her death.”

Beauty’s post-mortem
was conducted on Sunday morning, for which a senior doctor from the Bombay Veterinary College was also present. She was cremated in the afternoon.

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