Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh): A man was mauled to death by a lion in a zoo in Andhra Pradesh's Tirupati district on Thursday, officials said. The man was attacked by the big cat after he entered the enclosure meant for the big cat. The incident took place in Sri Venkateshwara Zoo in the district.
The deceased has been identified as Prahlad Gujjar, a resident of Rajasthan. According to the inputs received from the zoo, the man was in an inebriated state and didn't know what he was doing. To click a selfie, Gujjar jumped into the lion's enclosure and the big cat attacked him. On receiving the information, the police and the forest department officials reached the spot and started an investigation into the matter.
Following the incident, the officials stopped the entry of visitors inside the zoo. The police registered a case and shifted the body to the hospital for post-mortem. In the last decade, five similar incidents wherein people were attacked by animals in Zoos and similar parks across several states in India.
A 40-year-old man, identified as Gautam Guchait was seriously injured after being attacked by a lion at the Alipore Zoo in Kolkata after he jumped inside the lion’s enclosure in March 2021. In March 2020, a 35-year-old man was mauled to death by a tigress at Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park in Jharkhand's Ranchi.
In another incident, a man was killed by two lions in January 2019, after he entered the enclosure by scaling an over-25-feet wall, at Chhatbir Zoo in Mohali, Punjab. Meanwhile, in October 2017, a 40-year-old animal keeper was killed by two white tiger cubs at the Bannerghatta Biological Park on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The incident occurred when the animal keeper, Anji, had gone to place meat inside the enclosure. Maqsood Khan, 20, was attacked by a white tiger when he fell into its enclosure at Delhi Zoo in September 2014.
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