A day after an animal caretaker was trampled to death by an elephant at the Mysuru zoo, the management has told the animal keepers to take extreme precautions while handling and feeding animals, especially the larger ones such as jumbos.
The 39-year-old Harish, who had looked after the elephant Abhi since over a decade and had established a close bond with it, succumbed to the injuries the animal wreaked on him during the unprovoked attack in the elephant enclosure on Friday evening.
The death has shocked the zoo fraternity as the incident took place in front of other elephant handlers who could not save their colleague.
The zoo on Saturday announced an immediate compensation of ₹10 lakh to the kin of the deceased.
“It’s an unfortunate incident and an efficient caretaker is lost. The attack has baffled us since the tusker was very obedient and promptly listening to his commands. The elephant did not create any ruckus after the attack and behaved normally when the veterinarians examined the jumbo. It also behaved normally with the vets and listened to their commands as well,” said zoo Executive Director Ajit Kulkarni.
He told The Hindu that there are a set of SOPs which the keepers were supposed to follow and were following too. Moreover, the tamed jumbos are examined periodically by the vets. “We have one caretaker for one Asian elephant and two for one African elephant. In the zoo alone we have about nine Asian jumbos and a few are in the rescue centre, and there is one African jumbo. In the light of the incident, the keepers were told to rigorously follow the guidelines.”
Sources said the zoo officials were learnt to be making efforts on enhancing the relief to the next of kin of the deceased keeper since he was the sole breadwinner in the family.
