PESHAWAR: A Bengal tigress died in the Peshawar zoo on Tuesday, four days after being injured by its mate.

A zoo official told Dawn that the liver of the tigress was damaged by the mate in the attack on last Friday. He said though the injury was treated by the zoo vets, the tigress died.

“Wounds to liver are almost always fatal because they are hard to heal,” he said.The official said the zoo had two pairs of tigers but the death of a tigress had reduced the strength to three, including a pair and a tiger.

“This is the mating season for tigers, which usually get violent and assault their mates around this time of the year,” he said.

Tigers in general are a threatened species but Bengal tigers are among the rarest subspecies. Currently, they total around 2,000 in the world.

Wildlife minister Mohammad Ishtiaq Urmar on Tuesday ordered an inquiry into the death of the tigress. He said a meeting of the zoo management and veterinarian had been convened to look into the cause of the death.

In last May, a three-year-old giraffe had died of a viral disease in the zoo.

In 2018, the zoo lost a snow leopard – a threatened species. The Worldwide Fund for Nature had blamed the death on warm weather and poor habitat.

Though very popular among the residents and a source of substantial revenue, the zoo has lost several animals since its inauguration in 2018.

On Oct 3, 2020, a Peshawar High Court bench sought a detailed report from the provincial government about different issues related to the zoo, including animal deaths and educational qualifications of staff members, especially veterinarians.

It has fixed Oct 22 for the next hearing into a petition, which sought an inquiry and the fixing of responsibility for negligence in the zoo, which led to the death of several animals in the recent months.

The petition was jointly filed by 24 civil society activists. The petitioners sought the court’s orders for improvement of conditions in the zoo in line with international standards. They also called for the return of animals not suited to the environment of Peshawar to their natural habitats or suitable sanctuaries.

Advocate Ali Gohar Durrani, who appeared for the petitioners pro bono, pointed out that the government had admitted in its comments on the petition that the Peshawar zoo continued to be under construction.

He said those comments suggested that there was no proper plan available for the running of the zoo and instead, stopgap arrangements had been made for the purpose.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2020