100 & Counting: Tiger Deaths in India This Year Exceed 2015 Toll
India lost its 100th tiger, Durga, in Kerala’s Thrissur Zoo.
A seven-year-old tigress, Durga, died at the Thrissur Zoo in Kerala on Thursday, becoming the 100th Indian tiger to die this year.
Durga had been brought only recently from Kerala’s Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.
Dhanesh Kumar, the Divisional Forest Officer of the Wayanad sanctuary, told IANS that the tigress died while undergoing treatment at the zoo.
"We spotted her wandering outside the forest area from 27 September. She seemed weak and was hunting goats and cattle calves. We caught her on 9 October and took her to the zoo where she died on Thursday," Kumar told IANS.
He said while the tigress was not tagged, they named her Durga as she was caught on the day of Durga Ashtami.
"She had an injured right front limb and a missing canine that could be due to a fight with another animal in the forest," Vinoy, the veterinarian doctor at Thrissur zoo, told IANS.
As per the Wildlife Protection Society of India's records, 100 tigers have died in India in 2016.
Of this, 36 died due to poaching. The number of tigers that died in 2015 was 91.
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