Provoked by CCTV installation, tigress kills 4 cubs at zoo

A Selvaraj| TNN | Nov 11, 2017, 07:09 IST



CHENNAI: A tigress in the city zoo killed an entire litter of four cubs on Monday, just a day after giving birth, apparently after an ill-informed attempt to fix security cameras in its enclosure distressed the animal.

A forest range officer, Prashanth, newly posted to the Vandalur Reserve Forestarea, had engaged four workers to put up the cameras in tigress Uthra's pen in Arignar Anna Zoological Park, zookeepers told TOI on Friday.

They said senior members of the zoo staff repeatedly attempted to dissuade the forester from disturbing the tigress because it had just had a litter, but to no avail. "Uthra became distraught and turned violent, finally taking out its anger on the newborn cubs," a senior zookeeper said on condition of anonymity.

"We found the four cubs dead inside the tigress' enclosure on Monday and informed zoo officials," he said. "They called government veterinarians to the spot."

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The veterinarians performed autopsies on the cubs and examined the tigress but are yet to release their report.

An animal keeper submitted a report to the zoo's deputy director, an IFS officer, detailing the sequence of events leading to the deaths of the cubs.

The officer, Sudha, has called for a departmental inquiry into the case. A zoo official confirmed that the forest official had engaged four men, who climbed on trees to get close to the tigress' enclosure and fixed eight cameras all around it. "The workers connected the cameras to the zoo's control room to monitor the animal," he said.