Rana tiger, the 'pride' of Bondla zoo, dies

'Rana', the 16-year-old tiger who has been a familiar fixture at Bondla zoo in Goa since last seven years, passed away today.
"Rana has been unwell since October this year and was on soft food. Four days back, he stopped taking food due to which he was fed with milk and eggs," a senior Forest official told PTI.
'Rana' drank milk last night and was seen taking a stroll in cage in morning. "It died after going to sleep," the official said.
The big cat was born in Vishakhapatnam's Indira Gandhi Zoological Park on August 3, 2000. It was brought to Bondla Zoo on July 17, 2009 along with its female partner 'Sandhya', who is 14 now.

According to the official, the average life of any tiger is15 to 16 years, which means Rana has lived the full life span.
"The zoo officials visited the cage at around 1.15 pm where he was found dead. The postmortem has confirmed that the big cat died due to old age," he said.
As per central zoo authority guidelines, the remains were cremated outside the zoo at around 5 PM.
A pall of gloom descended as the staff was attached to Rana who was known as pride of Bondla, said Zoo Manager Paresh Porob.