40-yr-old jumps into zoo’s lion pit in Kolkata, escapes with minor injuries

40-yr-old jumps into zoo’s lion pit in Kolkata, escapes with minor injuries

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata:20.03.2021 

A 40-year-old man, reportedly mentally unstable, miraculously escaped with his life suffering only minor injuries after he scaled a wall and jumped into a lion enclosure at the Alipore zoo on Friday morning. Gautam Guchait, who reportedly just wanted to “set the big cat free”, had injuries and cuts in his legs when a lion attacked him, before zoo officials managed to lead the animal away.

Guchait, a resident of East Midnapore’s Patashpur, had left home four days ago, said police. “We spoke to him. He said he loved to see wild animals in the wild, and hence wanted to set the lion free,” an officer said.

Alipore zoo director A K Samanta said the lion was sitting at the northernmost corner of the enclosure, when Guchait jumped in, around 11am. “Since the lion was at the northern side, our security guards, too, were there, keeping an eye on the crowd,” he said.

“This person, wearing an orange robe, started climbing the enclosure wall from the other side and stood on top of it. Though our alert guards opened the lion shelter doors soon after spotting the man on top of the wall, he jumped. Once in, he couldn’t stand straight and started crawling towards Viswas, the lion, who attacked him with its paw,” he added.

It was only because of the alert zoo staff that Guchait escaped a worse fate.