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Mystery death of lion in Lucknow zoo

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

The death of a lion at Lucknow zoo on Thursday has aroused suspicion in Uttar Pradesh.

While the state's wildlife authorities have dismissed the death as a result of tuberculosis, sources claimed a killer disease seemed to be creeping into the zoo, where this was the seventh animal to die this year.

The other animals that died were a lioness, three tiger cubs, a baby elephant, a Himalayan bear and a Hukkoo monkey.

UP chief wildlife warden R L Singh maintained, "The 11-year-old animal had been suffering from TB from the time he was sent from Hyderabad zoo, along with two lionesses four years ago; one of those lionesses died in 1998."

Even as he claimed that the lion, "found dead" in his cage on Thursday morning, was "infected with TB", there is no evidence to show that it was under treatment.

Experts asserted that tuberculosis treatment could not have been going on for four years. "Either he was not suffering from TB or he did not receive proper treatment," remarked a wildlife enthusiast.

He also questioned the quality of food supplied to the zoo inmates. ''Often, meat given to the animals is stale and contaminated,'' he pointed out.

What has aroused suspicion was the hush-hush manner in which the lion's carcass was disposed of. The usual requisitioning of an outside veterinary surgeon was avoided and the zoo doctor himself conducted a post-mortem.

The body was hurriedly consigned to the flames in the zoo's new electric crematorium.

Singh admitted that the zoo hospital was ill-equipped, but he blamed it on paucity of funds. While defending the zoo authorities, he denied neglect or food poisoning. "We have sent the viscera for chemical examination to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute," he pointed out.

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