Kanha's famous tiger Bheema dies, countrywide toll reaches 90 this year

Bhopal: A tiger, the star attraction among visitors to Kanha National Park in Madhya Pradesh, died in a territorial dominance clash with another big cat, forest officials confirmed on Monday.

Bheema was injured in a clash with another tiger in the Mukki range of the reserve last week and succumbed to injuries on Sunday, the park superintendent P.K. Verma told reporters on Monday.

The tiger, originally named as T-28 but was later called Bheema due to his massive structure, was famous for his “friendly behaviour” towards tourists who used to take his photographs comfortably without facing any threats from him.

With his death, Kanha National Park has lost total 11 tigers this year so far for various reasons including poaching. Overall, 31 tigers died in MP in the current calendar year, with three in last one week.

The country has lost total 90 tigers in the current calendar year so far. In another incident, a female tiger in a zoo in Indore on Monday came out her enclosure creating a scare among the forest officials. Fortunately, there were no visitors in the zoo as it was closed on Monday.

The tigress, Yamuna, jumped off her enclosure and started loitering in the buffer zone for about one hour before being wooed back to her cage, a zoo official said.

This was the second time in a fortnight, she jumped out of it enclosure. On November 27, Yamuna escaped from its enclosure and entered into the buffer zone when the zoo was full of visitors.

“It appears Yamuna was feeling restive. She has now been shifted to another enclosure”, the zoo official said.