On Monday evening, around 9.30 p.m., as Haider and Basheer stood chatting near a lamp post of Chirag Ali Nagar in Bahadurpura, one of them spotted something big and black on the boundary wall of the zoo. Moments later, they could make out the eyes glittering in the dark and they raised an alarm. Within minutes, the lane became a beehive of activity as people from the area around Al Siddiqui dargah started thronging the area. A retired police official alerted the police, who in turn alerted the zoo officials.
And Janaki, the 10-month-old sloth bear, sat on the wall as local TV channel reporters jostled to videograph the proceedings. Around 10.30 p.m., two police patrol vehicles entered the lane and shooed away the eager onlookers while a veterinary team from the zoo evaluated its options. “We observed the animal for nearly half an hour to understand its situation and temperament before taking any action. We realised that the animal was unlikely to cross the concertina wire barrier on the high wall and we kept it under observation,” said Muhammad Abdul Hakeem, Assistant Director of Nehru Zoological Park.
“We were very excited about what was happening when the zoo officials brought a ladder and used blowpipe dart guns to tranquilise the animal, but they were not successful. Only much later, when they used the same thing from inside the zoo, two of the darts hit the mark. One near the belly and another on the leg,” says Muhammad Yaseen, a diploma student who followed the action from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. “We could not stay awake beyond that as there was nothing happening and we went away to sleep,” says Sameer, another localite.
Reconstructing the sequence of events, Md Hakeem said that the animal cracked open the ceiling and clambered onto the roof of its night house. “Then it must have walked on the other enclosures finally ending up near the outer wall. The tranquiliser took some time to have its effect and finally around 1.40 a.m. our staff managed to net the animal, bring it down and take it to its enclosure,” he says.
From the ceiling of the house in the locality, it is easy to see the hop, skip and jump that would have taken the animal to reach the human settlement. From the first floor house, one can see the albino tiger pacing the enclosure and occasionally growling and roaring. Arranged in a U shape with each enclosure abutting the other and covered with thunga grass, the path of the bear can be ascertained.
“ Kal yehan pe reechhaya tha maloom (yesterday a bear had come here, you know?),” says young boy as he stops the game of gully cricket as the tiger lets out one more roar around lunch time. “The animal is now relaxing and has not been harmed in any way. It has a few bruises and injuries from the adventure and she will be alright in a day or two,” says Md Hakeem.
