NANDANKANAN, JULY 29: Death, it seems, has found a new den at Nandankanan Zoo where one more white tiger, `Sukanta,' died on Friday night. With this the death toll of the endangered big cats during the past five weeks has gone up to 13.As many as 12 tigers, nine of them white, had died in the `famous' animal park during the last week of June and first week of July. In fact, 11 of them had died within 36 hours of July 5.The park authorities as well as experts from Orissa Veterinary College had attributed the carnage to `Trypanosomiasis' caused by a blood parasite spread by flies. But the death of `Sukanta' has come as a massive setback as it has raised concern whether the deadly epidemic has been brought under control in the Zoo.The tight-lipped Park officials claimed that when the feed was served to the tigers in the evening on Friday, the 12-year old male tiger was healthy and normal. It ate its quota of feed when the animal keeper Nakula Behera last saw him, they said. On Saturday morning, at about 7 a.m., the duty keeper found the white tiger dead.Zoo Director Vinod Kumar said he was clueless about the cause of the death. ``It was normal till Friday evening and had not developed any symptoms of illness,'' he said. When asked if the death could be caused by Trypanosomiasis, he declined to comment saying that the carcass has been sent for post-mortem to the Veterinary College.Forest and Environment secretary H S Chahar said he is waiting for the post mortem report for the cause of death. ``The park authorities had conducted blood test on Friday evening as part of the preventive measures for the tigers and the blood was found to be normal,'' he said.Interestingly, `Sukanta' was staying in enclosure no 32 (D) and all the 12 tigers which had died earlier this month belonged to either of the two adjacent enclosures-32 and 33. Moreover, when the epidemic had spread last month, a total of 17 tigers were administered Berenil of which 11 perished. Of the six which had survived, `Sukanta' was one.`Sukanta', moreover, was under medication since the last incident. ``It was being given oral dosages of Antoxid, vitamin capsules, since July 5. But the medicine was discontinued on Friday,'' veterinary assistant surgeon at the Zoo Hospital Dr B K Das said.However, till last reports came in, the Zoo authorities had not taken any steps to give medication cover to the rest of the tigers staying in 32 (D) and its neighbouring enclosures.In fact, `Sukanta' was sharing the enclosure with three of his offsprings `Jagat,' `Bhagat' and `Swagat' (all white) while two more young white tigers, `Prakash' and `Jagdish,' are staying in the neighbouring enclosures. All these five white tigers are among those which survived the epidemic and were administered Berenil then.Das said none of the surviving five has been given any preventives so far. ``We are waiting for the post-mortem report,'' he said.However, the death of `Sukanta' has orphaned `Jagat', `Bhagat' and `Swagat' as their mother `Durga' was one of the 12 which had died earlier this month. The total number of tigers in the park has come down to 43 with this death.Meanwhile, the Zoo authorities recovered the head of the South American crocodile which was found headless from the Boat Ghat inside the Zoo. It was butchered by unidentified miscreants late on Wednesday night. The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on yesterday had ordered the suspension of 21 employees of the Zoo.
