VISAKHAPATNAM: A Misadventure to win more ‘likes’ on social media landed five youngsters in trouble after the city police, on Saturday, arrested them for intruding into the enclosure for wild boars in the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park (IGZP). Besides entering the enclosure on July 3, the youngsters also took the video of the intrusion, and posted the 15-second video on Instagram from a profile, ‘lovely sai ganesh’, and tagged the IGZP’s Insta account.
The clip was widely circulated on social media, and IGZP officials lodged a police complaint, which led to the arrest of Laxman Rao, Sampath Sai, Sai Ganesh, Dilip Kumar, all aged 19, and Jaswanth Sai (21).
The video showed the youngsters scaling the peripheral wall of the enclosure in the zoo, and running back after making a circle on a mount.
Their plan, apparently, did not go smooth as a wild hog charged at one of them, chased and knocked him down (in pic). The youth was then seen clambering the wall back to safety.“The incident might have happened in a few minutes while the keeper of the animal enclosure was either inside the night house, cleaning and cutting feed, or on the other side,” Nandani Salaria, curator of IGZP, said.
Youths sought fame by winning more likes in social media
The security guard posted at the herbivore section during the visiting hours has to cover around eight animal enclosures. He might have been on his rounds when the intrusion occurred. A notice has been issued to the agency in charge of IGZP security to conduct an inquiry into the breach and take necessary action,” she added.
The park would also increase the height of the enclosure according to a Central Zoo Authority advisory to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. The curator said the youngsters did not harbour any malicious intention while entering the enclosure. “They wanted to become famous on social media by getting more ‘likes,” she added.
An undetected offence reports (UDOR) case was registered against the youths on July 10 under Section 38-3 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. “The punishment can be imprisonment up to six months. This case can be taken as an example by youngsters not to violate law for silly social media attention,” Salaria added. Besides being unpredictable and vicious, wild hogs are carriers of diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis E and influenza A, which could be passed on to humans. Though they normally attack if they are cornered or feel threatened, and have the reputation for unprovoked aggression also.