Fatal photography : Man mauled to death by tigers in zoo

This is a true story about which many of which might have read in leading India dailies. One Jaiprakash Bezbaruah, aged 50, was killed by two tigers at the Guwahati zoo on 18th Dec, 2007. But I have collected some photos published in local dailies from Guwahati which will make you feel how horrific was the incident.

This is how it took place : Jaipraksh, who hails from another town, came for a visit of the zoo at Guwahati with his family on the fateful day. Not heeding to warnings, he tried to photograph two tigers in a cage by putting his hand inside the cage, may be in an attempt to get a good shot. That urge for good shot proved fatal for him. One of the tiger attacked so swiftly that he could not even pull his hand out. The tiger cuaght his arm and pulled him towards the cage. The other tiger in the cage also joined soon. They even punched on the face of the hepless victim, resting on the grills of the cage. Imagine all this took place in front of his wife and two young sons. The guards and other visitors tried to make the tigers leave his hand by using sticks. You can see the sticks on the photo at top.f you look closely, you can see both the tigers. But the tigers did not relent till they chopped his hand off at its root. Then they feasted on the hand. Jaipraksh fell down unconscious by the time the tigers left him. He probably have died by then because of excessive bleeding, and may be because the tigers pounced on his face as well. He was declared brought dead in hospital. Ironically, these tigers were ot man eaters. They were breeded in some place at Karnataka. This has perplexed the zoo authorities as well. One should know that most tigers in zoos are man eaters. If a tiger turns man eaters, attempt is made to catch it. They are killed only if repeated attempt to catch them fails. If cought successfully, they are sent to the zoos.

This is a big lesson for all of us. We often tend to get too close for a better view of animals in zoo thinking that caged animal can not do anything. But if your death is imminent, anything can happen.