Two days after a white tiger mauled a 20-year-old youth to death at Delhi zoo, a public interest writ petition was moved in the Delhi High Court on Thursday seeking a direction to the Union Government and the Central Zoo Authority to assess safety conditions in the zoological parks across the country and take measures to tackle emergency situations.
The petition, filed by High Court lawyer Sunil Kumar, is likely to come up for hearing next week. Besides describing Tuesday’s incident in detail, the petition has given an account of mishaps involving attacks by tigers in the zoos situated in different States since 1998.
Mr. Kumar said in the petition that the freak accident in Delhi zoo had brought to the fore the lack of a quick response mechanism, such as the arrangement for tranquiliser guns on the spot, to rescue a person. “The poor boy, Maqsood, sat frightened for five to ten minutes in the moat before the tiger. There were no collapsible ladders in the vicinity...He could have been taken out of the moat in these precious minutes.”
The petition pointed out that the zoological parks in Singapore and the U.S. had alarms and collapsible ladders, which could immediately help a person out. The Delhi zoo did not have adequate fencing with proper height and had only one guard on each of the 20 zoo beats, it said, terming the situation alarming as a single guard could not control a large number of visitors.
Referring to the previous untoward incidents reported in zoos, the petitioner said a zoo-keeper had saved a 22-year-old youth, Mohammed Imran Khan, who had barged into the den of a lion in the Patna zoo in Bihar on August 10 last year.
