Sita, a 20-year-old tigress dies of old age at Vizag Zoo

Sita, a 20-year-old tigress, breathed her last at the Indira Gandhi Zoo (IGZP) in Vizag, in the early hours of Saturday. Paying tributes to Sita, the zoo authorities cremated the carcass on the same day. One of the premier zoos in the country, IGZP rarely reports a death. 

The cause of death has been determined to be the metastasis of a tumour through her heart. Sita had already well exceeded the average lifespan of a tiger and was in her later years when she died. 

Talking about the passing of Sita, IGZP Curator Dr. Nandini Salaria IFS, shared, “Sita had been with us for the entirety of her life. It’s a huge loss to the zoo as she had been one of the popular attractions, drawing in a lot of tourists, along with her mates. For about 20 years, we had built a safe home for her here at the zoo.”

With the passing of this tigress, 10 tigers are now in the Vizag Zoo, consisting of 4 Royal Bengal Tigers and 6 Siberian Wild Tigers. 

As per the latest tiger estimation reports, only 2,967 tigers are there in India. However, the graph is pointing in the right direction as the tiger population is growing significantly in the country. Back in July 2021, on the occasion of Global Tiger Day, the Union Government had revealed its plans to boost the tiger population in the country by 35 percent.