An animal keeper at the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad was killed after being thrown by a rogue elephant on Saturday.
The victim, 21-year-old Mohd. Shahabaz, entered the enclosure of the male elephant Vijay, to clean it, when the pachyderm flung him to a wall. He received severe head injuries and died on the way to hospital.
The elephant, rescued from Tirupathi close to 30 years ago and brought to the zoo, has a history of attacking people when in musth (heat), officials said. On Saturday too, two of his legs were chained to prevent him from running amok, yet he managed to attack the keeper.
“We recruited four mahouts to train him, but to no avail. Talks are on to send him to a training camp in Karnataka,” Zoo Curator Sunil S. Hiremath said.
