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Tiger kills man in Bhubaneswar zoo

Bibhuti Mishra in Bhubaneswar

A royal Bengal tiger, Naveen, came out of its enclosure and killed one Kshetrabasi Jena (60) and a calf at the Nandan Kanan Zoo in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.

This is the second case of a tiger killing a human being in the Nandan Kanan zoo near Bhubaneswar. On June 19 last year, Ananta Naik, a tiger had also killed a zoo employee.

The Nandan Kanan zoo had been shut down for repairs following damage done it to it during the cyclone of October 29. It is to be open to the public in March.

Kshetrabasi, the priest at the temple in the zoo, was cleaning the temple premises when the tiger came out of its enclosure and attacked him.

It bit Kshetrabasi on the neck and dragged the body to an enclosure nearby. Zoo staff claim say that other tigers made a lot of noise after seeing Naveen in the open.

Naveen sat on the body and would not budge when angry people broke open the main gate and charged at him with sticks and spears.

Ranger finally had to shoot tranquilisers at the tiger, which fled to an enclosure where a cow was tethered, and killed a calf. But after tranquilisers were shot four times at it, the tiger fell unconscious.

The situation was tense on Sunday morning but the angry people dispersed when the chief conservator of forests arrived there and promised Rs10,000 as compensation to Kshetrabasi's family besides a job to a member of his family.

It is not certain how the tiger escaped but a staff member said the enclosure door might not have been properly locked. Some experts felt the tigers might not have been properly fed, causing them to turn wild and attack humans.

CCF Saroj Patnaik, who visited the spot, has assured that a departmental enquiry will be instituted and the guilty punished.

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