Never had a partner due to aggressive nature

LUCKNOW: The lone rhino of Lucknow zoo, Lohit, breathed its last late on Friday night. The 34-year-old died at around 11pm. Its postmortem report showed cardio-respiratory failure associated with senility as the cause of death.
Lohit had lost all its teeth due to old age which made it difficult for it to have a normal diet. It was given 'kheer', chopped carrots, cucumbers and fresh fodder. Since January 23, it had been have trouble defecating following which it was under constant supervision of vets. In the last two days, it had stopped eating completely and was being fed sugarcane juice. Lohit was the only rhino the city zoo has had since April 6, 1995, when it was brought from Kanpur zoo.


It could never be paired with any female as the two state zoos did not have one and other zoos did not part with their females under an exchange programme. In its family, Lohit is the only one to have lived this long after its mother Mayang.

Lohit was born in December 1984 to Lakshit and Malang, a rhino pair from Assam. Lakshit lived for 18 years and died at Kanpur zoo in 1992 while 1973-born Mayang survived till 2007. The average age of Indian rhinoceros (also the great one-horned rhinoceros) is about 35 years.

Lohit's aggressive nature had left it lonely. While the breeding age of rhinos is usually between 11 and 35 years, Lohit could not be paired as the state could not find a female for it which affected its well being even more.

In 1995, Lohit had fatally injured his veterinarian, killing the man on the spot. Years later, he killed another man who had crossed the boundary of the animal's enclosure by mistake.

The same year that it was born in Kanpur, Lohit was shifted to Dudhwa National Park under the Rhino re-introduction programme. But Dudhwa's big bully Banke, the male rhino brought from Assam along with another male Raju and three females in 1984, fatally injured Lohit who was only ten at that time.

Banke was the dominant male and had killed Raju. Given the fear that Lohit too would be killed, it was brought back to Kanpur before being shifted to Lucknow. It also underwent a long treatment for its injuries.

Lucknow zoo had recently lost a white tiger Aryan and hybrid lion Prince to old age.