A keeper at the city zoo kept officials there on tenterhooks for nearly half an hour on Friday noon after he entered the cobra enclosure and refused to come out.
A daily wage worker who handles the snakes, he has been working at the zoo for nearly a decade and a half.
On Friday, just before the World Wildlife Week procession was about to begin, he entered the cobra enclosure and refused to come out, reportedly buckling under the stress of financial worries. The entreaties of his fellow keepers, supervisors, and the superintendent did not bear fruit.
Promise
It was only after Zoo Director K. Gangadharan promised favourable action in his case, did the keeper come out, sources said.
Financial worries reportedly forced the daily wage worker to the step.
