HYDERABAD: In a bizarre incident, a 25-year-old man climbed the wall of a lions’ enclosure at the Nehru Zoological Park on Tuesday, spreading panic among the onlookers and zoo staff alike.
However, two zoo employees managed to dissuade the man from jumping into the enclosure, averting a major tragedy.
The man, identified as Sai Kumar, a hotel employee, managed to climb the wall of the African Lions enclosure and was about to jump into it when two assistant animal keepers, Sandrakari Mahesh and Yashwanth Kumar, at the zoo noticed him. They approached Sai Kumar from behind and talked to him and managed to make him climb down to safety.
“It was lions’ feeding time, and I, along with my colleague Yashwanth Kumar, was going to the feeding area with meat. Suddenly, we heard people screaming. We first thought something happened to the lion. But we got scared as we saw the man, who was about to jump into the lion’s enclosure,” Mahesh told this newspaper.
“Our priority was to first save the man as the lion was waiting for him to jump so it could probably enjoy a sumptuous lunch. We do not even know how the man climbed there as it is not easy to climb the wall, and it is a prohibited area,” he said.
“Thankfully, he listened to us and climbed down the wall after a while. We asked him how he could climb the wall, but he did not answer,” Mahesh said.
When the zoo employees questioned him, Sai Kumar said he was kicked out of his house and wanted to feed himself to the lions. “Some people thought that he was probably mentally unstable, but I don’t think so,” Mahesh said.
Yashwant said, “We were scared, but we managed to save him as our priority was to save his life. Then we handed him over to our officials.”
