A 26-year-old man was today arrested for allegedly entering the enclosure of a jaguar at Nehru Zoological Park here and harassing it. Areeb Taha Mehdi, who works as a share-broker illegally entered the big cat’s (the jaguar) ‘night-house’ at the zoo on June 6 after bribing an animal-keeper and harassed the animal.
He then went on to click pictures of himself pulling one of the limbs of the jaguar. If this wasn’t enough, he uploaded the video of the act on Facebook on Sunday and tagged more than 75 people. Areeb had also written on the Facebook wall that “I missed to tag few more friends, anyone interested to have such mind-blowing experience do let me know.”
Police tracked Areeb down from his Facebook account. Based on a complaint from assistant curator Mohiduddin, a case was lodged under the Indian Penal Code and the Wildlife Protection Act as entering the enclosure is strictly prohibited. He told the police during questioning that he was fond of animals and an ardent follower of Discovery channel and wanted to touch the animal.
Video: Man plays with jaguar in Hyderabad zoo
“We have probed the incident and filed a complaint at the Bahadurpura police station. We are also taking more precautions. This cannot be considered a security lapse as it was human greed that led to this,” G Ravi, the curator of the Hyderabad zoo said.
The police registered an FIR and booked Mehdi for trespassing and also invoked section 38 (j) of the Wildlife Protection Act which prohibits teasing of an animal in a zoo. The zoo staffer has also been arrested along with Mehdi.
In a similar case earlier this year, Bahadurpura police had arrested a youth called Mohd Abdul alias Fazal Sheikh for illegally entering the enclosure of a tortoise at the park. He too had taken pictures and posted them on Facebook. Faizal who had got the photo clicked last May, told a gathering of reporters that he took the photo with the intention of putting it on Facebook for more “likes”.