Why Indian zoos are unsafe for staff

Kamla Devi never thought that a casual conversation with a colleague would save her life.

On the morning of September 2, Kamla, her sister Sugna Devi and five other women were cutting grass in a tiger’s enclosure at Jaipur’s Nahargarh Biological Park. The zoo is nestled in the Aravallis, and houses an animal rescue centre and several enclosures of mammals, such as bears, panthers and tigers. The sisters had been employed for cleaning and gardening work since the park’s inauguration in 2016.

As they worked that morning, Devi saw a flash of yellow and black from the corner of her eye – the tiger, named Shivaji, had made its way out from its isolation enclosure to the area where the women were working.

Kamla’s mind instantly returned to an incident from around a year ago, where a young staff member who was showing off tricks, demonstrated to Kamla and Sugna how to climb the wire mesh around the animals’ enclosure.

Kamla began to climb the mesh fence, as did the five other women. Midway, clinging on to the mesh, Kamla looked back to see where her sister was. What she saw still haunts her – the tiger had one paw on Sugna’s chest, and had attacked her neck....

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