Tiger Munna dies at Van Vihar in Bhopal

BHOPAL: Munna, the famous male tiger T-17 died at Van Vihar here on Sunday. The 19-year-old tiger was suffering from age related problems and had stopped taking normal diet for the past few days. Its rear limbs were paralysed rendering it immobile.
A team of wildlife experts was treating it but there was no improvement in its health.
Assistant director Van Vihar Ashok Kumar Jain said that Munna was rescued from Bamhni beat of West Mandla forest division and brought to Van Vihar on October 24, 2019.It had suffered paralysis in its rear limbs in February last year too, but it was treated the striped animal recovered on March 10, 2020. He died around 7.30 am. A post-mortem was conducted by a team of doctors and prima facie the cause of death was said to be old age. He said that Munna's death has left the entire Van Vihar staff and wildlife lovers mourning.
Munna was MP’s most photographed big cat
Munna was shifted from Kanha National Park as he was old and was becoming a threat to human life. Munna was Kanha’s most photographed tiger and the most recognised tiger of MP because of the characteristic stripes on its forehead which resembled the word ‘CAT’.
Once a dominant male tiger across the Kanha and Kisli range, Munna was also a very tourist-friendly and hardly paid heed to the presence of human beings around him, which was why it was one of the most photographed tigers. It had been pushed off its territory in the core area by other young tigers after which it had settled in the buffer zone. Due to old age, Munna was unable to secure wild prey and was surviving on cattle since 2018. After Munna injured a man earlier October 2019 and later killed a 14-year-old girl in the Jhangul village close to Kanha reserve, there were protests by the villagers forcing the foresters to shift it to Van Vihar.