In a three- hour long surgery, a team of Veterinarian successfully removed a tennis ball sized growth from the lower lip of Yash, an 11-year-old male captive Royal Bengal Tiger from Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). This was the second time such growth had occurred- the first was removed in August last year and biopsy reports had indicated it to be Granuloma and it was non-cancerous. As per Dr Shailesh Pethe, Veterinary Officer for SGNP it was in February that they found the growth on the left side of the lower lip. “We carried out the surgery on March 18 and removed a 400- gram growth. This was the second surgery in Maharashtra where we used gaseous anaesthesia that is mostly used for surgeries of humans, while carrying out this procedure and we have also sent the samples for biopsy for further investigations as this is the second time such a growth has occurred within six months of removal,” said Pethe adding that these surgeries are critical as a lot of precaution has to be taken not only during the surgery but also post it. The 240 kg big cat was removed out of its enclosure and operated. According to Pethe, after the successful surgery, Yash on the same evening damaged the stitches on his lower lips. “Since the stitches got open there was bleeding and we began treatment and gave medicine to stop the bleeding. Yash is now recuperating well and is being fed boneless chicken and buffalo meat and is under round the clock observation,” the Vet informed. The operation was carried out by a team of Vet led by senior veterinary surgeon Dr CC Wakankar and Pethe along with assistance from Dr Pradnya Pethe, Dr Manish Pingle and Dr Ajay Deshmukh in presence of concerned SGNP staff. There are a total of seven Royal Bengal Tigers including three males and four females.

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