A young man has been mauled to death by a white tiger in an enclosure at a New Delhi zoo as staff and visitors watched on in horror.
According to eye witnesses, the man, believed to be 20 years old and named Maqsood, jumped a low barrier before scaling the enclosure’s safety wall to take photographs on his phone or throw stones at the endangered cat.
He then fell 18 feet, landed in a dry moat and within a few minutes was cowering on his haunches as the large white tiger stood over him.
Photographs appeared to show the man with his hands folded in a traditional Indian prayer gesture. Other eyewitnesses said the tiger did not attack until some visitors threw stones at him.
It is not clear whether the stones were thrown at the tiger to help the victim or to goad the animal, a common occurence in Indian zoos where little respect is shown to the animals.
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“As he landed inside the enclosure, he saw the animal coming towards him,” one eyewitness told the Hindu newspaper.
“He sat with folded hands for the next few minutes as the animal kept watching him. Then all of a sudden, the tiger caught him by the neck and kept dragging before attacking with its claw.”
Other witnesses told local television channels they heard the victim’s screams and ran to the enclosure where they saw the man writhing “badly in pain” in the tiger’s jaws.
Officials did not attempt to rescue him and the man’s body remained in the enclosure for two hours after the attack. Police have since launched an investigation.
Zoo spokesman Riyaz Khan said police were investigating how the young man got into the enclosure.
“Apparently the boy has climbed the fencing and either jumped or fell into the enclosure and was attacked by the tiger,” he said.
“Our staff regularly move and caution the crowds from getting near the enclosures and they were doing it today also.”
Belinda Wright, India’s leading tiger conservationist, said the tiger should not be blamed for the incident.
“The tiger was just being a tiger. An unusual object fell into his domain... He’s a wild animal in captivity. It is certainly not the tiger’s fault”, she said.
