Legendary tigress Khairi, who became the face of wildlife conservation and a unique human-animal bond in Odisha nearly five decades ago, has now been honoured in a different way through a tiny freshwater catfish discovered in the Budhabalanga river in Mayurbhanj district.
Researchers Balaji Vijayakrishnan, Gaurav Anil Shinde and Prakash Chand Gogineni have named the new species as Pseudolaguvia khairii, as a tribute to the orphaned Royal Bengal tigress whose extraordinary life and close association with legendary conservationist Saroj Raj Choudhury left an indelible mark on India’s wildlife conservation.
The discovery, published in the international taxonomic journal Zootaxa on July 26, adds another species to the genus Pseudolaguvia, a group of small hillstream catfishes inhabiting the clear, fast-flowing rivers of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar.
Only a few centimetres long, Pseudolaguvia khairii can be distinguished from all its known relatives by a unique fleshy protuberance at the base of its dorsal fin, a feature not previously recorded in the genus. The researchers also identified several other distinctive morphological characteristics that confirmed it as a species new to science.
The species has been named after Khairi, the tigress rescued as an orphaned cub from the forests of Similipal in the 1970s and raised by Saroj Raj Choudhury and his wife, Nihar Nalini Swain. Far from being an ordinary captive tiger, Khairi became an international symbol of conservation, with Saroj Raj’s meticulous documentation of her growth, behaviour and ecology contributing valuable insights into tiger biology at a time when scientific knowledge on the species was still limited. According to the researchers, the name recognises not only Khairi’s enduring legacy but also Saroj Raj Choudhury’s pioneering contribution to wildlife research, conservation and public awareness. The dedication creates a symbolic bridge between one of India’s most celebrated tigers and a little-known freshwater fish, reinforcing the idea that every species, charismatic or obscure, deserves protection.
The discovery also draws attention to the remarkable yet poorly documented biodiversity of India’s river systems. Scientists say freshwater ecosystems continue to reveal species previously unknown to science despite increasing ecological pressures, with small bottom-dwelling fishes such as Pseudolaguvia khairii serving as important indicators of healthy river habitats.
Of the authors, Vijayakrishnan is a Mumbai-based independent researcher; Shinde is from Wildlife Institute of India while Gogineni is the field director of Similipal Tiger Reserve.
