Male tiger ustaad T-24 killed forest gaurd in Ranthambore

[Pckts]

Don’t interfere with nature
By Dharmendra Khandal Jan 28 2015  
Tags: Leisure Writing

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Just before we celebrated the news of tiger numbers swelling, Ranthambore reserve had a bit of a scare two weeks ago. One of its tigers, code-numbered T24, fell seriously ill. It started with constipation, but quickly turned into obstipation, the animal was unable to pass any stool at all.

The commonest cause for such a situation is hairball formation combined with some large pieces of bones in the animal’s intestine. Scat turns into a hard and stony substance and leads to impassable blockage. Forest guards found that the tiger would try very hard to defecate, squatting all the time, but to no avail. The vets tried to give him oral laxatives mixed in chicken, but T24 would sniff at it, but never consume it.

When the tiger’s condition did not improve in more than a week, worried foresters consulted all possible experts. While some vets suggested surgery, tiger expert Valmik Thapar advised against intervening in nature’s course. Post-operative care of a wild animal is impossible without holding it in prolonged captivity. T24 had already been kept in captivity for four days during treatment for a leg injury. After this, he killed three people in different incidents, when they ventured too close to him. Experts connected these incidents with some past captivity stress, which is why this time around, they were scared that after such a big surgery, they may not be able to release T24 into the wild again.

Park managers, therefore, decided to give him some external help through an enema of laxative. They shot some sedative drug darts at him, but the 240 kg massive male tiger managed to climb onto a small hillock. He hid behind a big boulder. Tension and apprehensions were heavy in everyone’s mind, because it wasn’t clear if the tiger had been tranquilised or not. A single slap of a tiger can permanently disable or even kill, so the guards approached him cautiously and found, to their relief, it asleep. They then brought the animal to the hill-base. After the veterinarians completed the enema-job, the tiger disappeared in the bushes. Two days later, on the 13th day that is, T24 finally managed to answer nature’s call, and everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

This incident goes to show that by not resorting to surgery as a desperate measure, forest staff managed to give this tiger a fresh lease of life.
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