New Delhi: In the backdrop of the mauling of a youth by a tiger in a zoo here, a PIL was today filed in the Delhi High Court seeking a direction to the Centre and Central Zoo Authority to assess safety conditions in zoos in the country and suggest measures to tackle emergency situations. The plea is likely to be heard on October 1.
“Direct the respondents to form a committee to assess the safety conditions of the zoological parks/zoos in India particularly the Delhi Zoo, and to suggest measures for the security and preparedness in emergency situations,” the PIL, filed by advocate Sunil Kumar, said.
The PIL details the incident of mauling to death of 20-year-old youth Maqsood by a white tiger on September 23 when he fell into the enclosure at the Delhi Zoo here. It also gives an account of fatal and serious incidents of attacks by tigers in zoos across the country since 1998. Besides the killing of Maqsood, the plea also gives details of an incident in which a tiger had eaten the left forearm of a two-and-half-year old child at Bellary (Karnataka) Zoo in 2012 when he was feeding chocolates to the tiger.
Referring to the incident here a couple of days ago, the PIL said it also brought to the fore the lack of quick response mechanism in the zoo to rescue a person from such a situation by tranquilizing the animal or by any other method. “The zoological parks/zoos in India come under the Ministry of Environment and Forests where many endangered species have been kept, many of them are ferocious by nature, which makes it more important to equip such parks with speedy and effective ways of preparedness...,” it said.
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