BHUBANESWAR: A Chhattisgarh government employee and his family members were allegedly beaten up by Nandankanan Zoological Park safari staff on Sunday evening as the former complained of discriminatory behaviour towards the visitors. Three zoo staff have been arrested in the connection.
Anant Gupta, a government employee, his parents, two brothers, their children, three sisters and an aunt had visited Nandankanan and booked 23 tickets for visiting the safari. They waited for over an hour to board the safari vehicle, but the staff did not allow them to board the bus when it arrived. They reportedly started calling other visitors to board the bus and asked Gupta’s family to wait for another vehicle.
This led to a heated exchange between Gupta’s family members and the staff. Instead of pacifying the visitors, the zoo staff started dragging his family members by their collars and also thrashed them with sticks. Within minutes four to five other staff along with associates joined the assault on Gupta and his family.
At least three members of his family sustained injuries and had to be given medical treatment in the City. A woman also sustained injuries in the incident. “Twenty six members of our family arrived in Odisha on May 20 and we went to Puri on the same day. We returned to Bhubaneswar on May 21 and went to Ram Mandir and then to Nandankanan Zoological Park a day later,” Gupta told The New Indian Express.
“I just hope the way we were attacked no other tourist faces a similar incident. My family members could have sustained much more grievous injuries had the police not arrived on the spot after sometime,” he said. Nandankanan Deputy Director Sanjeet Kumar termed the incident unfortunate and said he has directed zoo range officer (security) and local inspector to submit their respective reports in this connection.
If the tourists had any grievances they could have approached the zoo authorities. The safari staff should have also contacted us and no one should have taken the law into their own hands. In case the staff are found guilty, stringent action will be initiated against them, he said.
Gupta’s son Amitesh lodged a complaint in Nandankanan police station on Sunday evening. They left for Raipur in the night. A case in this regard has been filed, said an officer of Nandankanan police station.
Three staff Santosh Kumar Sahoo, Kanhu Mohapatra and Aman Patashani, all from Daruthenga, have been arrested and investigation is on, he added.
Nexus between staff and guides
Sources said there is a nexus between the guides and safari staff. A guide stands in a queue of the Safari on behalf of the visitors who have hired him. When the bus arrives, he pushes his customers ahead of the visitors who are already standing in the queue. Police suspect in this incident too a guide pushed some visitors ahead of Gupta’s family members in the queue, which led to an altercation between them. Nandankanan has engaged its own security personnel and some guards on outsourced basis. However, the number is not enough to monitor all the sensitive and crowded points. Sources said the zoo has over 100 CCTV cameras but many of them are not in working condition.