Mumbai, April 20: Forest rangers at the sprawling Sanjay Gandhi National Park are seeing their worst nightmare come true. A lioness, part of the safari show there, escaped into the wilderness after attacking her watchman-keeper late on Tuesday night. The rangers said that as an indicator of
its anger or irritation, the lioness dragged the injured keeper along with her into the jungle. The whereabouts of the 45-year-old watchman are still unknown.
Sanjay Gandhi National Park is in Borivali in suburban Mumbai.
“The incident occurred during the safari when the watchman was closing the gate after the bus was leaving the premises. The big cats roam freely in the fenced forest for visitors to see them. There are two gates in this fenced forest. While the gate was being closed, lioness Shobha pounced on the watchman and dragged him into the wilderness,” said senior police inspector Rajendra R. Thakur of Kasturba police station.
A massive search operation has been launched across the national park.
Police personnel from Kasturba Marg police station, fire brigade officials from the Dahisar post and forest rangers are trying to track the runaway lioness. However, they are short of equipment.
An officer told this newspaper that two deep-penetration searchlight-equipped vehicles were scouring the dense forest looking for the runaway lioness. Tranquilliser-shooting teams are also travelling in the vehicle, said the forest officer. The officers also believe that a lion too might have escaped from the premises after the incident.
The lion safari is one of the major attractions at the national park that offers a 20-minute bus ride to see lions and lionesses in the fenced forest area. The lioness Shobha was brought from south India two months ago.
Meanwhile, Dr Raghunandan Chundawat, a wildlife researcher and tiger expert, said, “As the lioness has attacked a human being, she has already become a man-eater. However, the situation is not serious as this lioness is a captive animal and she will not stray far from her original location. So it should be easy to catch her and get her back into the enclosure.”
An officer from Kasturba Marg police station said, “It’s a 30-acre forest and it is difficult to locate the lioness. We assume that she is in the forest and hope that she does not venture into the residential areas surrounding the national park.”
Pratik Salunke and Ateeq Shaikh
