WATCH: Hundreds attend last rites of white tigress Vindhya in MP

People throng the Maharaja Martand Singh Judeo White Tiger Safari and Zoo in Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa to get a glimpse of white tigers, a key attraction in the zoo. There are also 40 different endangered species and more than 60 non-endangered species here.

Vindhya, the first white tigress brought to breathed her last on Tuesday, May 9 at the zoo. The last rites of the 16-year-old white tigress were performed and a video showing the ritual has surfaced online.

The big cat died after a prolonged illness and the video shared by news agency ANI shows forest officials, cops, zoo officials and locals carrying the carcass on a wooden plank. The body was seen garlanded and covered in a white sheet. People assembled to watch the ritual and the cremation.

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The tigress was diagnosed with a kidney tumour and had stopped eating 15 days before it passed away. “For the past one and a half months, Vindhya had been suffering from some internal problem that could not be diagnosed, and later the forensic team diagnosed her with a kidney tumour. She had been eating less in the previous few weeks, but 15 days before she passed away, she had completely stopped eating. She died this morning in the early hours,” Chandrashekhar Singh, District Forest Officer, Rewa said.