Ranthambhore's most famous tigress hasn't eaten for 5 days

JAIPUR: Ranthambhore national park's legendary tigress Machhli, or T-16, might just be on the last leg of her long journey. Machhli, probably the world's most photographed tigress, has not eaten at all for the past five days and has been mostly lying quietly on the ground in Ama Ghati area in the fringes of the park.
“A team of the forest department along with a doctor has been posted on a constant watch over Machhli.We are trying to provide her some food too but she has not eaten at all," said YN Sahu, field director, Ranthambhore.
And though the signs are ominous but optimism lives on. For Machhli, at 19 years, has not just cheated death a number of times but also proven wrong the convention that tigers in the wild have an average life span of 13-15 years. It is this trait of this celebrated tigress that wildlife activists across the globe are pinning their hopes on. In fact, it was the large territory that helped her bag `honours' such as the lifetime achievement award by the Travel Operators For Tigers (TOFT) in 2009 April which calculated then that Machhli, in the past 10 years had contributed more than $10 million per annum to the economy of Ranthambhore.
With age not on her side, her diet soon had to be supplemented by the forest department -a move that prompted protests from many among the wildlife fraternity. “She is very , very old now. We are just keeping a watch. She has been a great contributor in form of her progeny ,“ added Sahu on Machhli's current condition.