Famous Ranthambhore tigress Arrowhead dies of bone tumor

Ranthambhore’s famous tigress T-84 aka Arrowhead passed away in the national park here. Her body was found near the Jogi Mahal in the core zone of the sanctuary Thursday morning.

The 12-year-old granddaughter of iconic tigress, Machhali (T-16), was struggling with a painful stage of bone tumor for quite some time.

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In a sense, the end for the courageous tigress was too painful. Besides pain from a bone tumor, she bore the trauma of separation from her three cubs in her last moments.

On her final day Thursday, when Arrowhead might have breathed her last near Jogi Mahal, her grown up female cub, Kankati alias Anvi, was waiting for her tranquiliser jab in the huge “crowd enclosure”.

Kankari (RBT-2507), who is believed to have killed a seven-year-old boy and a forest Ranger recently, was later in the day trans-located to Mukundara Hill Darra sanctuary in the Hadauti region. Earlier, her female sibling (RBT-2508) was trans-located to Ramgarh Vidhadhari reserve in the Bundi district and male cub (RBT-2509) was shifted to Kaila Devi sanctuary in the Karauli district.

Against all the odds, Arrowhead had hunted and preyed on a crocodile barely 3-4 days ago and earned the sobriquet “crocodile killer”.