Rajasthan man mauled by lion in Tirupati Zoo

TIRUPATI: A young man was mauled to death by lions as he jumped into the lions enclosure risking his life in an act of mischief at Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park (SVZP) in Tirupati on February 15, Thursday.

According to official, the man identified as Prahlad Gujjar (34) belonging to Bansur town in Alwar district of Rajasthan fell prey to his own bravado. He came alone to the zoo and bought an entry ticket.

With an intent of clicking a selfie with the lion, he broke the rule and jumped into the enclosure of the beast.

Though a caretaker who saw him from about 200 metres observed and cautioned him loudly, the man scaled a high wall and jumped into the exclusive area from where he went to used only to caretakers and doctors.

A male lion jumped on to him and held him by his neck and chased him. His attempts to save himself by climbing on to a tree failed as he was dragged to a distance of about 100 metres even before a caretaker shooed away. By then, he was mauled by the lion and killed. The zoo officials and police went in and brought the body out.

The entry of the visitor was recorded by the CC cameras into the zoo, the lions enclosure did not have any to record the incident.

Though it was suspected that the man who jumped into the lions enclosure was either mentally deranged or drunk, the details could be ascertained only after an autopsy.