In a horrific story from Kolkata, a 40-year-old man was attacked by a lion in the Alipore Zoo, resulting in serious injuries to the man.
The incident took place after the man, believed to be drunk as he wasn’t seeming to be in the right mind by officials, jumped into the big cat’s enclosure.
Identified as Gautam Guchait, the man had stepped into the zoo after buying a ticket, clad in a saffron ‘sadhu’ dress. He couldn’t be saved in time as the lion had already attacked him before any action could be taken. As a result, he suffered serious injuries on his neck and shoulder.
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When the zoo staff rushed to the enclosure to save the man after getting informed by the visitors, he was found lying motionless on the ground. An official told reporters that Gautam “somehow managed to climb the boundary wall before jumping over the two netted-boundaries to get inside the enclosure. The lion, which was out of its cage, attacked the man. He has been very badly injured.”
However, he was rescued alive and shifted to the SSKM Hospital in the West Bengal capital immediately. Soon after this, the family, residents of East Midnapore district that is 120 km far from Kolkata, were alerted of the incident.
The police is investigating the case and going through the CCTV footage of the zoo to find further details on the matter.
Chief wildlife warden of WB, VK yadav said, “A man who seemed mentally unstable managed to enter a lion’s enclosure. He suffered some injuries and had to be hospitalised. We have ordered a probe.”
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When gained consciousness, the man alleged to the media that he was trying to free the caged animal as he does not consider it to be right. Speaking from the hospital bed, Gautam said, “I came to save the lion. It is a wild animal and hence should not be kept in a cage. I climbed the wall and went inside, but the lion attacked me.”
This isn’t the first time when someone jumped into a big cat’s cage. In 2018, a similar incident occurred after a man was seen getting into an open enclosure filled with lions in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram Zoo. He was, however, saved on time by security officials who pulled him away from the area.
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In 2016, Hyderabad witnessed an incident of such kind where a 35 year old man jumped into a lion’s cage at the Nehru Zoological Park. As a punishment for his reckless behaviour, a local court awarded 4 months imprisonment to the man. Officials added that he was intoxicated at the time he executed the act.
