16-year-old tigress dies of old age at Pune zoo

A day after International Tiger Day, a 16-and-half-year-old tigress named 'Nandini' died at the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park here on Thursday.

The tigress, which had stopped eating for the last several days, died of old age, said director of the zoo Rajkumar Jadhav.

Nandini, who was born in captivity at the Peshve Park zoo in 2004, was on saline water for the last 15 days, he said.

"For the last three to four years she was not on display at the zoo," Jadhav said, adding that life span of tigers is 16 to 18 years.