(IN): Face-off with bear but alive to tell tale

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Link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080208/jsp/northeast/story_8876083.jsp

 

Face-off with bear but alive to tell tale

A STAFF REPORTER

 

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*Guwahati, Feb. 7: *Visitors to the Assam State Zoo were today spared a near

repeat of the sight of two tigers ripping off a man's arm from inside their

cage when a youth who had jumped into the bear enclosure was rescued with

only a scratched thigh.

 

Azahar Ali, 23, had a face-off with an adult Himalayan black bear — known to

be one of the fiercest predators in the wild — but he was luckier than

Jayprakash Bezbaruah, who died after a mauling by Royal Bengal tigers

Govardana and Divya when he went too close on December 19.

 

Zookeepers saved Azahar, a resident of Chandmari Railway Basti and presumed

to be mentally unstable, after being alerted by other visitors who saw him

trying to fend off the beast inside its enclosure. Assistant conservator of

forests M.D. Roy said zoo staff used sticks to chase away the bear before

pulling the youth to safety.

 

Azahar had been flirting with danger ever since he entered the zoo around

4pm. Witnesses said he first tried to feed grass to an elephant but was

stopped by a zookeeper, who asked the youth to leave the animal alone. He

next approached the bear enclosure — more of a pit — and jumped into it from

the wall. Two of the bears were in their cubicles and another was outside,

basking in the last rays of the winter sun.

 

" The bear did not attack him immediately. It appeared to size up the man

before lunging at him and scratching his (left) thigh. Fortunately for him,

the zookeepers acted promptly, " one of the witnesses, Nanda Sharma, said.

 

Another visitor to the zoo said Azahar " at first appeared to be enjoying the

fight with the bear " . He panicked only on realising that it would be a

one-sided battle.

 

Zoo staff took the dazed youth to the hospital within the sprawling complex

for first aid before sending him to Guwahati Medical College and Hospital.

 

" The man seems to be mentally unsound, but his exact condition will be known

only tomorrow when we get the medical report, " an official said.

 

Staff manning the region's largest and most popular zoo have been extra

alert since the December 19 incident but, as the official asked, " what do

you do when somebody wants to commit suicide? "

 

While Azahar seemed to have a death wish, Bezbaruah was a wildlife lover who

became careless in his enthusiasm. He had come with his family to Guwahati

from Sivasagar district and was trying to take a picture with one arm inside

the tiger enclosure when one of the animals caught hold of his left arm and

was joined by another. The middle-aged man died of blood loss and shock.

 

Lying in his hospital bed, Azahar appeared unfazed and oblivious to the hue

and cry he had triggered. " I just wanted to see the bear from close range, "

he said.

 

 

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