Cuttack: Foster mother of legendary tigress Khairi, Nihar Nalini Swain, breathed her last at Ashirvad Old Age Home at Siddheswar Sahi in Cuttack on Wednesday. She was 91.
She had been staying at the old age home since the death of her husband, Saroj Ray Choudhary, a former forest officer of Odisha.
It was on October 5, 1974, that Kharia tribal community brought the unattended bony seven-week-old cub to Choudhury, the founder Field Director of Similipal Tiger Reserve in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha. It was found near the Khairi river.
She grew in the company of Blackie, a bitch, and a blind hyena, under the Choudhurys’ watchful eyes. Nalini and her brother Saroj Raj used to feed Khairi mutton and milk powder with their hands. She used to fall asleep only by the scent of her foster mother’s sari.
Nalini took care of Khairi as if she was her own daughter until the latter had to be put to sleep with an overdose of tranquiliser after contracting rabies from a dog bite in 1981.
