Raja, one of the oldest tigers in India, dies at 25

Kolkata, July 11: 25-year-old Raja, one of the oldest living Royal Bengal tiger in the country died in the wee hours on Monday.

Raja, the tiger from South Khairbari tiger rescue and rehabilitation centre at Alipurduar's Madarihat, died at the age of 25 years and 10 months making it one of the longest surviving tigers in the country.

"He was one of the oldest tigers in India, and was brought to the Khairabari Leopard Rescue Centre at Jaldapara in north Bengal in August 2008," said Deepak M, divisional forest officer of Jaldapara.

Raja did not show any symptoms of serious illness in recent times and the vets diagnosed the cause of his death as old-age-related problems, which may surface all of a sudden

Raja was in rescue centre of Jaldapara from many years. Raja, who had been taken to the South Khayerbari Tiger Rescue Centre since 2008, walked on a prosthetic limb after the original got severed in the crocodile attack while swimming across a creek in the Sunderbans. "He was like a child. He seemed to understand everything," said an official.

The Bengal Tiger is one of the biggest cat species in the world.

In the wild, a Bengal tiger's lifespan is approximately 15 years. In captivity, Bengal tigers usually live for 20 to 25 years.

In 2014, the oldest tiger living in a captive environment, 26-year-old Guddu, died at the Kanpur zoo in Uttar Pradesh. The death of the royal Bengal tiger came as a shock to the authorities as they were planning to seek Guddu's entry in the Guinness World Records, as the male tiger was said to be the oldest surviving wild cat in the world.