Contagious virus suspected behind death of another tigress in Nahargarh Biological Park

Jaipur: Are the wild animals at Nahargarh Biological Park of Jaipur being killed by a deadly virus? The death of yet another tigress gives credibility to these suspicions. Sita – the only white tigress of the park – died on Thursday morning. The blood samples have been sent to IVRI in Bareilly for an examination, but the experts don’t rule out the possibility that the wild animals are infected with Canine Dispenser Virus.

This was the third death of a wild animal in seven days. Earlier, lioness – known as Sujain – and the cub of tigress – Rambha died. All the three wild animals were females. Amid reports about negligence in providing timely treatment to these wild animals, forest and wildlife minister Sukhram visited the park on Friday and ordered an enquiry.

The postmortem examination of Sita’s body was conducted on Friday.

“We are sending the blood samples to Bareilly. Whether these animals were infected with a virus or not would be confirmed only after we receive the report,” said a senior forest department officer.

Sita was 14-year-old and had been brought to Jaipur from Delhi zoo in 2013.

Sources said that tiger – known as Kailash – also sick. The tiger has not been eating food properly for the past 3-4 days. Some wounds were spotted on his body. He was administered a vaccine, but the park authorities didn’t take blood samples for examination.