Following reports from the Prince of Wales Zoological Garden about Vrinda's health, the Forest Department -- besieged by letters of anguish against the proposed mercy killing -- need no longer constitute a medical board to decide upon Vrinda's fate. ``We are having second thoughts on setting up the committee,'' says Chief Wildlife Warden of the State, Dr R L Singh.

G P Sharma, director of the zoo, told The Indian Express that when the lioness was brought to the zoo on March 3, she was so sick that she would barely eat two kg of meat, and was suffering from many diseases, including arthritis. ``Now she's eating seven kg of meat and digests it easily too,'' he says.

He says Vrinda, whose plight had triggered a country-wide debate on theconfinement of animals in small enclosures, will now be kept in a large area where she can move about freely.

Vrinda was among the 29 animals seized from the Veena Kamal Golden Mobile Zoo for violating the Delhi High Court order on keeping animals in small cages. The Central Zoo Authority (CZA) too had refused to recognise mobile zoos as it said the animals were kept in enclosures that caused them physical harm.

However, Sharma says Vrinda needs about Rs 10,000 a month to recover fully. The cash-strapped zoo has made fervent appeals for adoption but no one has come forward. Sharma says so far, a ``paltry'' Rs 12,900 had been received for her care.