lion ‘Lamba’ died of old age issues at Van Vihar National Park on Friday. The lion was 17 years old. The lion was brought to the park on April 14, 2017, from Guwahati (Assam) at 13 years of age. The lion was not feeling well since few weeks and he was not taking food for three days. Post-mortem of the lion has been conducted by Dr Atul Gupta, Dr Sunil Tumaria and Dr Rajat Kulkarni.

Last rites was performed under NTCA guidelines and samples have been preserved for further laboratory testing. Now, Van Vihar is left with four lions only.

Four days after lioness ‘Megha’ delivered three cubs in Indore zoo, one of the cubs seems to be missing. The missing cub was very weak since birth. The zoo management is trying to locate the third cub but due to presence of lioness, employees are unable to visit the den.

Zoo officials said it is dark inside the den so they tried to find the cub with the help of a torch but he was not visible. On Thursday evening, caretakers sighted only two cubs with the lioness and they informed about the issue to zoo management.

Zoo Incharge Dr Uttam Yadav immediately reached the spot and tried to trace the cub. On Friday morning, the entire team tried to locate the third cub but he was not visible due to darkness. Uttam Yadav said, the third cub was very weak since birth so they kept him under observation for a day. As the cub was very small he could not stay without the mother, they left him in the den. But the lioness was not feeding him and even she did not let him come closer. Zoo officials said wild animals are habitual of eating their weak cub so there are chances that the lion has either eaten up the weak cub or the cub has died. The den is very long so the team will be searching for the cub throughout the day. Zoo officials said both the cubs are very small so lioness cannot be departed from the den. On March 22, 10-year-old lioness ‘Megha’ delivered three cubs at Indore zoo. Population of lion in Indore zoo has increased to 13 as there were 10 lion earlier. However, this is yet to clarify whether the newborn cubs are male or female. Lioness Megha had earlier delivered cubs during year 2015 (3) and 2017 (4). Megha was brought to the zoo in year 2013 with a lion.