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Experts still puzzled about tiger deaths

Bhibuti Mishra in Bhubaneshwar

What could be the cause of the 13 tiger deaths at the Nandankanan zoo here?

Experts are puzzled about one of the worst fatalities in the history of zoos. Chief wildlife warden D S Patnaik has not ruled out action against officials found guilty.

Nandankanan had 59 Royal Bengal tigers, including 21 white tigers. Now, 14 white tigers and 32 other tigers are left.

There are many possibilities on the cause for the deaths:
* The bacterial disease trypanosomysis. Though the first tiger died of it on June 23, the zoo authorities took no steps to stop its spread
* The injection Bernyl is preventive, not curative
* Administration of the injection was on Monday, a day of fasting for the tigers
* The injections could have been contaminated. This can only be proved once blood samples and the serum are analysed in Madras
* The disease may have spread through water
* Inbreeding of tigers may have made them weak and ill. Some experts felt that frequent inbreeding is responsible for the progeny of tigers becoming weak and successive inbreeding of these F1 types could ultimately lead to heavy casualties

Four tigers died in the Hyderabad zoo and three in the Bangalore zoo in 1970 and some died in the Patna zoo in 1998, for similar reasons.

SEE ALSO
Centre orders probe into tiger deaths

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