Could the Delhi zoo authorities have saved the unfortunate Delhi boy Maqsood who was mauled to death by the seven-year-old white tiger Vijay?
The answer is, yes.
The boy and the tiger looked eye to eye for almost 10 minutes, before the tiger quite unused to intrusions into his territory but who has never hunted, having been bred in the zoo itself, grabbed him by the neck. In these crucial 10 minutes not even the animal's keeper summoned the courage to distract the tiger.
Only some shokced visitors tried distracting the tiger by throwing sticks and stones.
Every zoo has an emergency contingency plan and a disaster management plan in place to handle a crisis situation like what happened on Tuesday, In the case of Delhi Zoo, it too has a plan in place, which has been submitted to the CentralZoo Authority. However,when on Tuesday, when it came to putting the plan into action, there was a complete lapse.
While the boy fell into the 18-ft deep dry moat running around the enclosure, the zoo keepers and attendants were just 12 ft away from the boy in the same moat. But none mustered the courage to distract the tiger and save the boy.
As per the standard operating procedure, in this case immediately two attendants who the animal is familiar with, should have entered the enclosure to take control of the situation, And a third person should have saved the boy.
"All this should have been done in the least possible time. But in this case, we see no attempt was made," said a senior officer of the Central Zoo Authority.
"Our men on the other side tried to distract Vijay, the tiger by calling out to him. Immediately we brought some meat and placed it on the tray where Vijay dines. But the shouting of the public was so loud that we probably were not audible to the tiger," said Rajbeer Singh, the chief zoo keeper.
When asked why the handler did not get into the enclosure to distract Vijay, the zoo authorities revealed that while the staff is trained to handle the day to day affairs, they are not trained to face the animal in such a situation.
"The contractual employees are always on and off jobs. They are not trained to handle emergencies," said Riyas Khan, curator of the zoo.
The zoo is awaiting two rangers, whose posts have been lying vacant for more than 10 years now. These rangers are master supervisors who can control the animal in such a situation.
The zoo management and the Central Zoo Authority meanwhile are officially brushing aside the possibility of any lapse in their system. "Prima facie it appears that the boy had jumped into the enclosure and within a few minutes the entire incident unfolded," said BS Bonal, member, Central Zoo Authority. Bonal informed that a two-member committee has been constituted to complete the investigation. As usual nothing is expected to come out of such committee reports.
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