A man who jumped into a lion enclosure at Tirupati zoo, possibly to click a selfie with the big cat, ended up being mauled to death on Thursday afternoon.
Authorities at the Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park said the man, identified as 38-year-old Prahlad Gujjar from Alwar in Rajasthan, had entered the enclosure after getting into an unauthorised section that was not open to the public.
He had reportedly ignored a caretaker's warnings to back off, climbed a fence that is over 25 feet tall and jumped into the enclosure.
The lion, named Dongalpur, mauled Gujjar to death before the caretaker could act. A police case has been registered and a post-mortem is being conducted, which will also establish whether Gujjar was in an inebriated state when he entered the enclosure. Gujjar was visiting the zoo alone and authorities are trying to get in touch with his family, said zoo Curator C Selvam.
The zoo has three lions - Kumar, Sundari and Dongalpur - and the last of them was on display on Thursday. Dongalpur has now been moved to a cage and will be kept under observation.
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