Slow down and live longer

On March 23, the Calcutta Zoo in India made a great impact when it reported the death of one of its animals. What was so unusual about this death, because all animals (including us) must die at some time or another, isn't it? However, the death of 'Adwaitya' was remarkable. It was because death occurred after 250 years! More than we humans would ever live!

Yes! Adwaitya was 250 years old! This extraordinary tortoise, who was famous among many generations of people, was the oldest living animal. In fact, it was almost 80 years older than the previous recorded oldest animal, which was also a tortoise.

Adwaitya was an Aldabran tortoise. Aldabra is an island in the Indian Ocean which very few people have visited. Someone who went there had captured Adwaitya and given the tortoise to an Englishman Robert Clive. India had become a part of the British Empire after the British won the Battle of Plassey, as long ago as 1757! Adwaitya came to the Calcutta Zoo about 130 years ago, and from then on, grew to be a legend at the zoo until the final call came.

He soon became a firm favourite with children, who always wanted to see him before visiting other animals. There were many sad faces around the zoo when his death from liver failure was announced.

If tests on Adwaitya's shell prove right, he was 250 years old. He may have been even older; he will take away the record for the 'longest-lived animal' from another tortoise - 'Tui Malila', who was presented to the King of Tonga (a group of islands in the South Pacific Ocean) by Captain Cook, the famous explorer who lived in the 1770s.

'Tui Malila' was cared for by the Tongan family until it died in 1965. This means this tortoise was either 188 or 192 years old, a youngster when compared with Adwaitya. Guess who the next oldest animal is?

Another tortoise, and this time it's a 176-year-old Galapagos tortoise that lives in Australia. Why or how tortoises live so long, no one knows. May be it is because they do so very little, except eat, sleep and take life very slowly!

Secrets of long life

When we compare the lifestyles of some of the humans who have lived for long years, passing 100 years, with those living a hectic life in this dynamic world, it is evident that when it comes to longevity, the 'slow and steady' like the tortoises definitely have the edge.

The more hectic our lifestyles are, the more stress we bring upon our bodies and the smooth functioning of our internal systems.

Jeanne Calment, a 122-year-old French woman who died in 1997, was not even half of Adwaitya's age when she died, but still, she was considered to be a great achiever in the race of life. Source: The Newspaper

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Fact file

There are many others who have lived a healthy life well past a century.

* Jeanne Calment was born on February 21, 1875 in Arles, in Southern France and she had a birth certificate to prove it.

* Jeanne died in August 1997. She had lived for 122 years and 164 days and was considered to be the person who had lived the longest, at that time.

* Jeanne out-lived her husband, her daughter and her grandson.

* She met Vincent Van Gogh, the world famous painter, when he came into her uncle's shop to buy paints, in 1888.

* Jeanne began fencing lessons when she was 85 years old!

* She was still riding her bike when she was 100.

* The Guinness Book of World Records had listed Jeanne as the oldest living person whose date of birth could be proved.

* On her 121st birthday, in 1996, Jeanne released a CD called Time's Mistress. On it, she recalled her life to rap music and other tunes.

* Jeanne claimed she kept her mind active by recalling her life story which she never got bored of.

* According to Jeanne, an occasional glass of wine and a diet rich in olive oil was responsible for her long life.