Nagpur: Foresters offered prayers at the popular Tekdi Ganesh temple on Wednesday for the well-being of the Katlabodi tigress that was rescued from a 35-foot dry well, 40 kms from here, on Monday. It didn't go unanswered as the tigress seems to be on the road to recovery.
However, the severe shock and trauma of having fallen into the well led to a miscarriage with the tigress, which is expected to be less than six years old, delivering three stillborn cubs on Tuesday afternoon. Though disheartening news, the tragedy quelled rumours of its cubs moving in the Katlabodi forest area.
The traumatized tigress was brought to the Deer Park at Seminary Hills around 9.30pm on Monday night and was kept in isolation. On Tuesday around 11am, the forest staff monitoring the tigress was surprised to see something unusual in the cage.
The tigress had delivered two stillborn cubs. The third cub was noticed after the cage was shifted to the forest guesthouse around 1.30pm. The cages were completely covered with green net and late in the evening when the animal was being put in the squeeze cage, the staff saw one more stillborn cub.
Of the three premature cubs, two are female while one is a male. Tiger experts, who did not want to be quoted, said pregnancy in the tigers is not obvious to the eye for the first two and half months, but becomes noticeable only in the last 10-12 days.
"The tigress looked healthy but its genitalia were normal and hence the pregnancy could not be detected. The gestation period for tigers ranges from 93 to 111 days. It can have a litter of between 1 and 7 blind cubs, the norm being 2 to 4," an expert vet told TOI.
In the case of Katlabodi tigress, the cubs had developed body organs like whiskers, nails, ears, legs and tail. The coat and teeth were missing. Doctors of the government veterinary college here are trying to ascertain age of the cubs.
The dead cubs will be used for educational purpose for vet students. Chief wildlife warden DC Pant, who was on tour and could not be contacted, has apparently given his OK to this plan.
Conservationists say the miscarriage might be perhaps one of the reasons why the tigress took so long on Tuesday evening to enter the treatment cage. "She must have been unable to bear the trauma of three dead cubs around her and hence the reluctance to move into the other cage," they said.
The staff and forest officials felt that the tigress was not moving due to an internal injury after the fall. However, at night, after the noise and traffic came to a standstill, the wildcat entered the treatment cage.
On Wednesday morning, a team of Dr NP Dakshinkar, professor of medicine at Nagpur Veterinary College, and assistant professor Dr Gautam Bhojane started treatment of the tigress. Its blood, urine, scat samples were tested and all the reports appear to be normal. The vets have prescribed some medicines.
Staff monitoring the tigress saw the tigress moving and also standing on all four legs, indicating that her the hind ones were responding and the spinal cord was all right.
Though miscarriage is an unusual phenomena among tigers, experts TOI spoke to said it's also quite normal. "Due to great fall, it went into physical and mental shock. Due to pressure on its abdomen it must have bled from inside and aborted the cubs," said PM Lad, the ex-principal chief conservator of forests of Madhya Pradesh.
His wife Dr Kamal Lad, a gynaecologist who had raised a tiger cub for seven months in 1983, said the case is very similar to humans. "Self abortion is rare in tigers. But any stressful situation can lead to miscarriage," she said.
"It may also happen when the predator is surrounded by so many humans. Although having no option but to capture and cage the animal, it causes irritation and stress leading to such a situation," said a Chennai-based wildlife expert.
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