{"id":385,"date":"2026-08-27T21:18:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.corbettonline.com\/blog\/?p=385"},"modified":"2026-08-27T21:18:01","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:48:01","slug":"sorrow-in-corbett-phanto-zone-tiger-bhola-passes-away-at-dhela-rescue-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corbettonline.com\/blog\/sorrow-in-corbett-phanto-zone-tiger-bhola-passes-away-at-dhela-rescue-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Sorrow in Corbett : Phanto Zone Tiger ‘Bhola’ Passes Away at Dhela Rescue Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sorrow in Corbett: Popular Phanto Zone Tiger ‘Bhola’ Passes Away at Dhela Rescue Centre<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

RAMNAGAR, UTTARAKHAND: Wildlife lovers, naturalists, nature guides and tourism stakeholders are in a great sorrow due to the heavy loss as the Corbett Tiger reserve (CTR) bids farewell to its beloved, famous and well-known tiger ‘Bhola’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhola, the charismatic adult male tiger who ruled the hearts of visitors and the camera frames of the wildlife photographers in the Phanto tourism zone, has passed away during its treatment at the Dhela Rescue Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhola’s estimated age was between 5 to 9 years, He was more than just a big cat, he’s an example of peaceful coexistence between wildlife and human tourism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King of Phanto, left hearts shattered<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhola got famous due to his exceptional calm and composed attitude. He was different from other tigers, while other tigers react in aggressive way while encountering with Safari vehicles, Bhola would calmly sit right beside safari jeeps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this gesture and his calm and composed attitude, there are a lot of famous and viral videos of Bhola on social media platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He brought spark to the Phanto tourism zone and left tourist spellbound because of his majestic confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that is why he was named as ‘Bhola’ meaning ‘Innocent’ by the Safari drivers, nature guides and local operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catching a glimpse of Bhola near the tracks of Terai West divisions Phanto Range was one of the ultimate highlights of any Safari in that region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s understand the Phanto Tourism Zone that Bhola ruled<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Located in the Terai West Forest Division of Uttarakhand, the part of Phanto tourism zone is one of the most vibrant and picture perfect additions to the Jim Corbett landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has rich green trails, crucial natural water holes and dense canopies; the zone has rapidly earned remarkable reputation among the wildlife enthusiasts and Corbett visitors due to the high frequency of tiger sightings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loss of its iconic resident ‘Bhola’ is a big loss and deep sorrow for this zone and the entire Corbett community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened with Bhola?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually there was a hard-fought battle which led Bhola from injury to rescue and rescue to demise. Bhola’s health began to deteriorate a couple of months ago after he suffered severe physical injuries. It was believed that the injuries were result of a fierce territorial fight with some other male dominant tiger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is when safari guides spotted him limping and struggling with physical weakness, they immediately informed the forest authorities about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking immediate action a specialised team led by Corbett Tiger reserves senior veterinary officers tracked and successfully rescued Bhola from the Phanto range on June 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the rescue everyone’s beloved Bhola was shifted to the Dhela Rescue Centre for medical care and treatment. After that for nearly 2 months, a dedicated team of veterinary experts worked tirelessly to get him back to health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the injuries and internal trauma was too deep that even after the extensive medical care and continuous oversight by the forest department Bhola didn’t survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After death rituals and Post Mortem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the demise of Bhola the Corbett administration ensured that all statutory wildlife conservation protocols were strictly followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A postmortem examination was conducted by a team of expert veterinary doctors at Dhela Rescue Centre according to the guidelines of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA). The whole procedure was carried out in the presence of senior forest officials including CTR director-Dr. Saket Badola and Deputy director-Rahul Mishra along with the representatives from key conservation bodies such as World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and The Corbett Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To know the exact reason of his death vital biological samples and tissue specimens were collected during the autopsy. These samples have been dispatched for advanced scientific analysis to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) in Bareilly and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII)in Dehradun. Once the reports will arrive the exact reason of Bhola’s death will be found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the autopsy, the final rites and cremation of the beloved Tiger ‘Bhola’ were carried out under official supervision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhola’s death created a void in the Jungle<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The loss of Bhola marks the end of an era for the Phanto ecotourism circuit. He will no more be physically present in the jungle of Corbett, on the dirt tracks and the water holes of the reserve but his memories will stay alive in the hearts of the wildlife lovers. He will always be remembered in the stories told by the nature guides. His photographs and videos on social media platforms and in the galleries of wildlife photographers and tourists will always tell his story of glory, attitude and majestic confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will always be remembered Bhola; Rest in Peace, the gentle king of Phanto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sorrow in Corbett: Popular Phanto Zone Tiger ‘Bhola’ Passes Away at Dhela Rescue Centre RAMNAGAR, UTTARAKHAND: Wildlife lovers, naturalists, nature guides and tourism stakeholders are in a great sorrow due to the heavy loss as the Corbett Tiger reserve (CTR) bids farewell to its beloved, famous and well-known tiger ‘Bhola’. Bhola, the charismatic adult male…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[369,370],"class_list":["post-385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corbett-news","tag-bhola-tiger-phanto-zone-death","tag-phanto-safari-zone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corbettonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corbettonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corbettonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbettonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbettonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbettonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":388,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbettonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385\/revisions\/388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corbettonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbettonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbettonline.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}