Wild reaction: New rhino in Vizag zoo breaks free, creates panic

By SNV Sudhir


Visakhapatnam, April 11, 2013: The scene seemed straight out of a movie — except that it was all too real. Staff and visitors at the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park here panicked after a rhinoceros ran amok, coming out of the moat in which it had been kept for acclimatisation. Authorities had to close the zoo for the day after the incident.

The 12-year-old male rhino, named Nakul, had arrived at Vizag zoo on Wednesday evening from Kanpur zoo after a punishing four-day journey in a small cage, loaded on a truck. The cage had to be kept small because if the animal made even a small movement the truck would turn turtle.

Nakul was kept at a ‘night house’ at the local zoo for him to acclimatise to his new surroundings.

The night house is located away from the regular enclosures and visitors are not allowed there. A guard on duty at the night house suddenly heard some loud grunt on Thursday morn

ing and saw the rhino break out of its enclosure and enter a muddy pool.

The zoo authorities fell into a frenzied state, for they anticipated it would attack people. The staff members suffered minor injuries in the melee that followed.

The staff had to use tranquillisers to bring the animal under control, which took at least half an hour.

The zoo authorities said the rhino had been rescued by the Kanpur forest authorities and it would take it some time to get used to the new environment.

“The four day journey

confined in a small cage, that too in summer, may have stressed the rhino.

Rhinos generally like to be in muddy waters for long hours and it had been away from it for a few days,” said Pradeep Nath of Visakha Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

“Nakul is now resting at the night house. We have also called for a doctor from Hyderabad zoo to chalk out a strategy to tame it and to put it into an enclosure for public view. We evacuated the zoo as a precautionary measure so that no visitor is harmed due, said zoo doctor P. Srinivas.