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Contaminated meat caused the Nandankanan tragedy

Bibhuti Mishra in Bhubaneswar

At Nandankanan zoo, empty cages stare you in the face. Till just a few days ago, these were occupied by India's pride -- the Royal Bengal tigers. Today, they have become a source of national shame.

In a span of just three days, the zoo lost 12 Royal Bengal tigers -- some of them of the rare white variety. Both government officials and zoo authorities are busy stonewalling questions, saying an "inquiry" has been ordered.

But some of the keepers in the zoo did talk when they were assured of anonymity. They were unanimous that the tigers died of 'trypnosomiasis'. That, however, is no news. That is what the findings of the post-mortem reports have already said.

What nobody, however, knows is how the tigers got the disease. The keepers said contaminated meat was the most likely cause. They are not the only ones who say this.

B M Arora of the Indian Veterinary Research Institute said contaminated food is the most likely way a tiger in captivity can get trypnosomiasis.

Meat is supplied to the Nandankanan zoo by independent suppliers. Insiders say these suppliers have to pay a percentage of their profits to the zoo authorities to bag the contracts. To cover this "extra expense" they usually supply poor-quality meat.

When the first tiger in enclosure number 32 died on June 23, the zoo authorities maintained that the death was caused by kidney failure. "If it was just a kidney failure, what was the need to identify 17 other tigers for infection? Kidney failure is not infectious," said Dr S Acharya, a veteran animal health care expert.

Sources said the zoo is not equipped to screen its meat supplies for infections. This is not the first time trypnosomiasis has struck Nandankanan. In 1999 two tigers had died of the same disease.

It now turns out that the zoo authorities bungled in the treatment of the tigers too. The Drug Control Department has disclosed that the two injection samples (5ml each) collected from the zoo hospital were not purchased from local dealers as claimed by the hospital.

"The two samples handed over to us had not been purchased from any local dealer or procured from a neighbouring state in the last two years," said an official.

Dr Prasanna Senapati, a senior government veterinary surgeon, said: "If the drugs used were over two years old, they might have reached expiry. In that case the injections would have had no impact or might even have proved counter-productive."

So, contaminated meat giving the big cats the disease and drugs that had lost their potency precipitating their ordeal seems to be most credible theory before the inquiry team that has arrived in Bhubaneswar to investigate the tragedy. Its report is expected by July 15.

Centre orders probe into tiger deaths

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