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Nihar Nalini Swain, foster mother of tigress Khairi in Odisha, dies at 88
Nihar Nalini Swain, better known as Khairi’s foster mother, had been staying at the old-age home following the death of her husband, Saroj Rai Choudhury, who is considered by many forest officers as the father of wildlife education in India.
BHUBANESWAR: Nihar Nalini Swain, who along with her wildlife officer husband Saroj Raj Choudhury, famously raised tigress Khairi in the 1970s, died in an old age home in Odisha’s Cuttack district on Wednesday.
Nihar Nalini Swain was known as the foster mother of tigress Khairi who came to the couple as a frail and bony seven-week-old cub, and lived with them in their forest bungalow.
She passed away in Ashirvad old age ashram at Siddheswar Sahi in Cuttack at the age of 88. “She passed away peacefully,” said Shreeja, a family member of Swain.
Swain had been staying at the old-age home following the death of her husband, Saroj Rai Choudhury, who is considered by many forest officers as the father of wildlife education in India.
When Choudhury was director of Similipal Tiger Reserve in 1974, a group of Khadia tribals returning from an expedition found a tigress with 3 cubs. The tribals shouted and banged their drums to scare away the tigress. The tigress ran off with 2 of her cubs but one was left behind. The tribals took the frail cub and brought it to the official quarters of Choudhury who named it Khairi. Since then, Khairi lived with the childless couple as their adopted daughter at home.
Within a few days of getting the cub into their household, it became an inseparable part of the family. The cub ate from Nihar’s hands. Though Choudhury and Swain reared some other wild animals at their residence including a crocodile, a bear cub, a blind hyena and a mongoose, it was Khairi that caught everyone’s notice. Khairi stayed with the couple in their bungalow till it was bitten by a rabid dog in 1981. As her condition deteriorated, Choudhury decided to euthanise the tigress to spare her the torture. Khairi was buried in the lawns of the same bungalow. Choudhury died soon after. After her husband’s death, Swain moved to an ashram and later to an old-age home.
