Famed tortoise no more
Afp, Kolkata
Zoo officials in Kolkata said yesterday a famed 225-year-old tortoise brought to the eastern Indian city during the rule of the British East India Company has died. The giant Aldabra tortoise was one of several brought by British seamen from the Seychelles Islands as gifts to Robert Clive of the East India Company in 1875. It died after a string of illnesses, Kolkata Zoo director Subir Chowdhury told AFP Thursday. "Adwaitya (The Only One), who delighted the zoo visitors for 131 years, died on Wednesday morning," Chowdhury said. "His shell will be preserved in the zoo. All zoo employees are saddened by his death."
|
File picture taken on April 25, 2005 of a giant Aldabra tortoise resting inside its cage at the Alipore Zoological Garden in Kolkata. The nearly 225-year-old tortoise, possibly the oldest animal on earth, died in the zoo on Wednesday after it suffered a string of illnesses, zoo officials said. PHOTO: AFP |
