Animal lover's 'self-sacrifice' tryst with tiger foiled

In a bizarre attempt of ‘self-sacrifice’, a self-proclaimed animal-lover tried to jump into the enclosure of a tiger in the Indore zoo on Friday but the staff managed to rescue him in time.

He later told the staff that being an animal lover, he would have been happy if his body had filled the stomach of an animal. When he had attempted to jump, a tiger was sitting in the enclosure. The zoo management handed him to police.

The youth, identified as Vijay Jhala, said he was fed up with unemployment and was also debt-ridden.

Zoo in-charge Uttam Yadav said zoo employees saw a youth climbing on the iron fencing of a tiger enclosure around 12.45 pm and warned him from afar to come down. As Vijay ignored the warning and kept climbing, the employees rushed to rescue him.

They had to struggle a bit with the stubborn youth to take him down from the fencing.

Vijay told the police that he had a small job till 2016 and his monthly salary was Rs 6000. After being rendered unemployed, he opened a small shop of biscuits and water pouch in Ujjain during the Simhasth Mela. “Then GST came into force and plastic pouch and glass of water were banned, my business collapsed and I was unemployed again”.

Vijay Jhala said he was miserable as he was unable to fulfil his responsibilities towards his wife and children. He claimed that he had registered himself with an employment exchange long back but could not get any job.