AN UNLIKELY 18th-century corporate gift that outlived its owner, outlasted its owner’s employer and steadily munched lettuce from the rise to the fall of the British Empire was finally declared dead yesterday.

In 1775 British sailors from the Seychelles presented a tortoise called Adwaitya to Robert Clive, of the British East India Company. Zookeepers in India claimed that the same Adwaitya died a peaceful death in his enclosure on Wednesday — at a reputed age of 255.

Officials at the Alipore zoo in Calcutta, where Adwaitya (The Only One) spent his final 131 years, believe that their recently deceased giant Aldabra tortoise was one of four given to Lord Clive, the officer credited with laying the foundations of the British Empire in India. Although the others died soon after reaching Clive’s residence in Calcutta, Adwaitya reputedly survived to roam his master’s large estate before being retired in 1875 to spend his twilight years in the local zoo.

Although Aldabra tortoises can live well into their second century, the apparent age of Adwaitya is exceptional, not to mention difficult to verify. No standard method exists for dating a tortoise. Colin McCarthy, the Collections Manager for Lower Vertebrates at the Natural History Museum in London, said: “Some people claim you can age a tortoise by counting its rings.” Much like trees, tortoises produce growth rings on their shells, with a new one being laid down every time they hibernate. However, Dr McCarthy said: “It works for only a limited time as the shell wears, and not all tortoises hibernate regularly. You tend to need documentary evidence to suggest the same tortoise is being talked about through time.”

Jogesh Barman, the Forest Minister of West Bengal, was confident. “We have documents to prove that [Adwaitya] was more than 150 years old, and we have other evidence, and it seems that he is more than 250 years old.” Subir Chowdhury, the director of the zoo, said that the shell may be carbon-dated, a technique more commonly associated with archaeological artefacts.

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