Offering chocolate to a tiger proved costly to a two-and-half-year kid as the tiger tore off his left hand in Bellary zoo.
This incident took place in Bellary zoo on Monday. N Nikhil, son of Naga Babu and Lakshmi, who work in Channapatna near Ramanagar in a
private firm, had come to his grandparents’ house in Bellary for a visit.
His grandmother Balamani took Nikhil to the zoo. The kid tried to feed a chocolate to the tiger in the cage.
He put his left hand inside the grills of the cage and tried to give one chocolate to the tiger. The male tiger “Bhima” pounced on the boy and caught boy’s arm in its mouth.
Zoo officials have said that the boy went near the cage and the tiger tried to pull the boy inside the cage
Till the time visitors rushed there to rescue, boy’s arm was torn off by the animal.
Boy’s grandmother said that she had asked the boy to wait for a while as she wanted to search a free place for him to play. But the boy ended up near the cage.
There was no security official to stop the child.
“We have booked a case against the zoo officials and are investigating the case,” an officer from the local police station said.
S Manikantan, deputy conservator of forests, Bellary division, said that he had instructed the officer in-charge of the zoo to put up a mesh around the tiger cage to prevent such incidents.
The boy is recuperating in a Bellary hospital, but has lost his left hand.