"The man indentified as Suryanarayan Das (45) from Chhatrapur in Ganjam district all of a sudden climbed on the wall and jumped into the lion enclosure (29-D) housing Cris (male lion) and Priyanka. We rescued Das within five minutes and rushed him to a hospital," Zoo assistant director K L Purohit said.
He ruled out the possibility of
somebody pushing Das into the enclosure.
The incident took place around 1.10 pm
when security guards had gone for lunch. As soon as Das fell inside the
enclosure, the lioness pounced on him, Purohit said.
The lions returned to their cage when
the people started shouting at them.
"The man touched my feet before
jumping into the lion enclosure," an elderly woman tourist from West
Bengal said.
Das sustained muliple injuries on his
skull, cheeks, neck, legs and hands, said Dr Srikant Mohapatra, the general
manager of the private hospital.
"Das regained consciousness in the
hospital. He has sustained deep bites on hands and legs. Das also admitted
having a quarrel with his wife before coming to the zoo," Dr Mohapatra
said.
He was now stable, Dr Mohapatra said.
Stating that this was first such
incident at the zoo, Nandankanan deputy director C R Mishra said they strictly
follow the Central Zoo Authority guidelines so far security of visitors are
concerned.
"Now we will further think about
the visitors safety. If someone wants to jump inside the enclosure of animals,
no one can help," Mishra said.
Meanwhile, Purohit claimed that there
was no panic among the visitors as claimed by a section of media.
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