Sohel, the lion king of Dulahazara Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park in Cox's Bazar, has died. He suddenly went still in the lion enclosure on the afternoon of Wednesday (23 February).

Park custodian Md Mazharul Islam said Sohel died at the age of 22. He filed a general diary (GD) with Chakaria police station on Wednesday evening.

In the GD he stated that the park's elderly lion Sohel died at about 4:30pm on Wednesday. A lion normally lives 15-18 years in the wild, but this one died at 22, having come to Dulahazara Safari Park in 2004. He had been suffering from age-related problems for the past three to four years.

Chakaria Upazila Livestock Officer Supan Nandi and the park's veterinary surgeon, Dr Hatem Sajjat Md Zulkar Nain, carried out a post-mortem on the lion.

Custodian Mazhar said the lion came to the park in 2004 from the National Zoo in Mirpur, Dhaka, at the age of four.

He said all the main signs of old age had gradually appeared in the lion. In 2019 and 2020, four teachers of Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University treated him separately, and they too observed that he was old and near the end of his lifespan.

The Dulahazara Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park, in the Malumghat area of Chakaria on the Cox's Bazar-Chattogram highway, opened in 1999. Covering 900 hectares inside and out, it has many forest tree species, including a large number of mother trees (garjan). On every day except Tuesday, visitors' excitement mingles with the noise of the animals.

The park's 19 enclosures hold a wide range of animals, local and foreign, including elephants, tigers, lions, hippos, gayal, African zebras, wildebeest, bears, wild boar, langurs, peacocks, freshwater and saltwater crocodiles, snakes and wild cattle.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.