Animal keeper killed in ‘elephant attack’ at Nehru Zoo Park

An animal keeper at the Nehru Zoological Park died after he was attacked by an elephant in its enclosure here on Saturday.

According to information available, the zoo animal keeper, 23 year-old Shahbaz entered the elephant enclosure to clean the premises as part of his regular duties when Vijay, the elephant, stuck him.

The incident happened around 3 pm and the other staff members pulled out a badly injured Shahbaz from the enclosure and rushed him to Apollo DRDO Hospital. The doctors at the hospital declared



him dead around 4 pm.

Zoo officials expressed dismay at the incident and said they were trying to ascertain the details of the incident. A senior official said the pachyderm was from the wild and could have ‘rogue gene’ that prompted it to act the way it did today.

“Vijay is actually from the wild and one of the two elephants that were caught in Tirumala Tirupati hills area in the year 1996,” a senior official said. Among the two, while Vijay was shifted to Nehru Zoo, the other one was moved to Kuppam.