Black cobra's bite kills white tiger at Indore zoo, snake paralysed

Indore, Dec 28: A black cobra killed a white tiger in its enclosure at Indore zoo on Saturday after a fight that left the snake paralysed.

On Saturday morning, the zoo officials found the two-year-old tiger, Rajan, unconscious, bleeding from the nose and foaming at the mouth. Though doctors were rushed in, he was declared dead. Postmortem has confirmed the tiger died due to snake bite.

And away from dead tiger’s paws, inside a small burrow in the enclosure, the snake hid itself. The tiger had died after inflicting a bloody blow on the snake. Indore zoo in-charge Dr Uttam Yadav said the cobra had been paralysed in the fight and they were trying to save it.

“We will start the treatment of cobra from Sunday as it is angry today (Saturday),” added Yadav.

About 2 years ago, a snake had entered the enclosure of two tigers, but the tigers killed it after a brief encounter.

Rajan’s death is a blow to Indore zoo as he was brought to zoo about a month ago from Chhattisgarh for breeding. The zoo is now left with three white tigresses — Diya, Shivani and their mother Sita.