Animal fort

Jamshedpur July 20: Intruders will be caught. Intruders will be shot (well, with cameras). And intruders will be singed. Tata zoo has decided to turn into a foreboding fortress to protect its 400-odd denizens, many of them exotic or endangered.

Last Sunday, a 28-year-old unemployed youth from Chandil had sneaked into the enclosure of Tata zoo’s tiger family — father Raghav, mother Shanti and their only cub born on April 17. He was mauled and injured by seven-year-old Raghav who, fortunately, had had a heavy dinner the night before. An internal probe nailed theft of the cub as the possible motive behind trespassing.

After sturdy locks, cell shift and manpower shuffle a day after trespassing at the tiger enclosure, the authorities have decided to conduct surprise night inspections, install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras and raise electric fencing on zoo premises.

The three-member probe team — comprising Tata Steel Zoological Society managing committee member Rajnish Kumar, director Bipul Chakravarty and his deputy Manik Palit — is believed to have discussed these proposals threadbare with Turret Industrial Security Services, the entrusted private sentinel of the zoo. “These are measures that need to be implemented at the earliest,” Kumar said, adding that random night vigil would start from Thursday itself.

Besides senior Turret officials, zoo director Chakravarty and vet Palit will do the rounds. “We have categorically asked the security agency to take on-the-spot action against its errant guards. Inspection will commence after 10pm on Thursday, but will be random instead of routine so that delinquent security personnel are caught off-guard,” Kumar maintained.

A zoo employee said the job of fixing some half a dozen CCTV cameras would be handed over to another private agency, the name of which he did not disclose. “We are keen on hi-tech camera surveillance, particularly at tiger, lion and spotted deer enclosures. We will take suggestions from the agency on where else cameras should be installed,” he said on the condition of anonymity.

He added that the sloth bear and hog deer homes might also need a third eye. “Security bottlenecks will be lessened to a great extent if these measures are taken up at the earliest,” he said.

No wonder the zoo, which is now home to five pure-bred African lion cubs from Pretoria zoo, is on a security overdrive.