Cold kills two tiger cubs in Pench National Park

BHOPAL - Two tiger cubs have died of cold in the Pench National Park in Madhya Pradesh, an official said Thursday.

“Severe cold conditions leading to lung congestion proved fatal for both the cubs, aged around one-and-half months”, the park’s deputy director, A.P. Tiwari, told IANS. The park is located in southern Madhya Pradesh bordering Maharashtra.

The cubs - a male and a female - the official said, are believed to have died in the past four or five days.

“The patrolling staff found their bodies in the interiors of the park yesterday (Wednesday). There were no injury marks on the bodies. There was heavy rainfall on Dec 19 which led to a substantial temperature drop and this could have been the cause of illness of the cubs,” Tiwari added.

An autopsy on the cubs carried out by veterinarian Akhilesh Mishra in the presence of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) nominee Sanjay Thakur also indicated death due to pneumonia.