Machli, the world’s most photographed tigress in India passed away on Thursday at the Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan.
Also known as ‘the queen of Ranthambore’, she turned 20 this year and was considered as the oldest living tigress in the world. The average life span of a tiger is around 12-13 years.
She was reportedly unwell for the last four days. She was lying in a semi-conscious state, hadn’t eaten anything and had barely moved, Field director of Ranthambore Tiger Project, Yogesh Kumar Sahu told Hindustan Times.
Tigerwalah, a professional wildlife travel and destination management company, wrote a Facebook post on Wednesday informing people about her illness. Along with an extremely disturbing image, it said that the tigress was confined to a small area of the park for the last four days and keeping her age in mind, medical intervention could prove fatal.
A heart-rending video is doing the rounds on social media, which describes it as Machli’s last moments.
DISTURBING VISUALS. VIEWER DISCRETION ADVICED.
The name Machli was given to her because of the marks on her face that resemble a fish.
ScoopWhoop had made a profile of the royal bengal tigress a few months ago. Watch the video below:
As soon as the news of her death broke, many on Twitter expressed their grief:
Tragic!
Legendary #Ranthambore tigress ‘Machhli’ dies! pic.twitter.com/5IpcV3jwpG— T.A.N.U.J. G.A.R.G. (@tanuj_garg) August 18, 2016
(Feature image source: Twitter | @GargiRawat)