Drunk man jumps into lions' enclosure

Spirited away

A visitor to the Nandankanan Zoo near here sustained serious injuries on Friday afternoon after he jumped into a lions’ enclosure in a drunken state and was subsequently attacked by two animals.

The man identified as one Suryanarayan Das, a resident of a village near Khallikote in southern Odisha Ganjam district has been admitted into a city hospital.

Hundreds of tourists who were near the enclosure of the zoo, one of the prominent zoological parks in the country, were in for a shock when they saw a man, in his 30s, taking out his clothes and jumping into the enclosure only in his underwear.  According to eyewitness, before the act, the man folded his hand and did a “pranam” to other visitors standing nearby.

He did the same once he entered the enclosure and saw the two animals marching towards him. Supriya, a lioness, was first to attack the man. She was immediately joined by Krish, a lion. Both started dragging the man towards their cell inside the enclosure.

However, zoo caretakers immediately rushed to the spot and managed to rescue the man after shocked tourists raised an alarm.

The man had visited the zoo alone. Zoo director Sudersan Panda has confirmed that the man was drunk.  “He was completely in a drunken state and entered the enclosure after taking out his clothes. He did a ‘pranam’ to the animals before he was attacked,” he said.
The zoo, a popular spot for visitors both within and outside the state, had never witnessed a similar interest in the past.