Cuttack: Nihar Nalini Swain, the foster mother of Odisha’s legendary tigress Khairi, breathed her last Wednesday afternoon in Ashirvad Old Age Ashram at Siddheswar Sahi of Cuttack City. She was 88.
The elderly woman was suffering from old-age related complications. She had been staying at the old-age home where she spent the remaining part of her life following the death of her husband and former senior forest official of Odisha Saroj Rai Choudhury, a distant relative informed.
It is pertinent to mention, Nihar Nalini’s husband Saroj was posted as director of Similipal Tiger Reserve in 1972. Some local tribals rescued a female tiger cub from Khairi riverbank in 1974 and named her as ‘Khairi’. Later, they handed over the lone cub to the forest official.
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The couple then took the cub to their house in Jashipur and brought her up with human care away from the wild habitat. Within a few days, rescued Khairi became an inseparable part of the foster family.
Nihar Nalini took care of Khairi as if she was her own daughter starting from feeding to playing with her. After Khairi became full grown, the tigress died due to severe bacterial infection in 1881. The couple had reared some other wild animals at their residence such as a crocodile, a bear cub named Jambu, a blind hyena called Baina including a mongoose. The animals roamed freely in their courtyard.
Choudhury was an environmentalist, wildlife conservationist and writer as well. He was the first Forest Conservator under state government and the founder director of Similipal National Park in Mayurbhanj.
Choudhury was well-known for ‘pugmark technique’ which he applied for tiger census and for his intimacy with Khairi. His experiences with the big cat were described in a book named ‘Khairi: The Beloved Tigress’, written by him and published in 1977.
The Government of India conferred the senior forest official with Padma Shri in 1983.
PNN