TIRUPATI: A 38-year-old man from Rajasthan was mauled to death by a lion at the Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park in Tirupati on Thursday. The victim, identified as Prahlad Gujjar from Bansur municipality in Alwar district, jumped into the lions’ enclosure at the Zoo. It is suspected that he was either in an inebriated condition or was mentally disturbed.
Curator C Selvam said such an incident has happened for the first time at the Zoo.
According to authorities, Prahlad was seen loitering near the lions’ enclosure at 2.15 pm. When he tried to scale the wall, the animal keeper warned him against doing so. The man ignored the warning, scaled the six-feet wall and jumped into the enclosure, where he was attacked by the male Asiatic lion, Dungarpur.
Even as Prahlad tried to escape by climbing a tree, the 12-year-old wild animal held him by his neck, shredded his clothes and dragged him for approximately 100 metres within 10 minutes of entering the enclosure.
The animal keeper immediately alerted the authorities and they tried to save the man, but in vain.
Victim ignored warnings, says zoo curator
After some time, the Zoo staff locked the lion inside the night house. A team of police officers recovered the body from the enclosure and shifted it to SVRR Government General Hospital for postmortem. The officials were able to identify Prahlad as they found his Aadhaar card in his trousers.
“Despite warnings from the animal keeper, Prahlad deliberately jumped into the enclosure by climbing the wall and chain-link fencing, resulting in his tragic death,” Selvam said.
SV Zoo houses three lions originally from Dungarpur in Gujarat. While two lions are in a cage throughout the day, one is released daily for public viewing.