Burmese python escapes from its enclosure in Vandalur Zoo, Chennai.

Zoo is the place, where people enjoy seeing animals.  The one at Vandalur attracts huge crowds.   It was earlier the Madras Corporation Zoo which functioned in the museum premises, later shifted to place near Central station.   In 1979, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department set aside 1,265 acres in the Vandalur Reserve Forest on the outskirts of the city to build the current zoo  and the zoo in its new premises was officially opened to public  in 1985  by the then chief minister of Tamil Nadu M.G. Ramachandran.  The zoological garden at Vandalur was named after the former CM Anna.  It reportedly houses more than 170 species of animals in about 81 enclosures and has successfully bred some wild animals in captivity.

bisons at vandalur and below black tiger

The zoo is in news for wrong reasons and a shiver goes down upon reading the same.  The news is about the escape of  nine foot burmese python.  About a year ago,  in suburban Tambaram (off Chennai, Tamilnadu) late night, a 70 year old carpenter and his wife happily watching a soap opera on television had a surprise visitor. It did not walk in but crawled. The nocturnal guest was a four foot long marsh crocodile. Surely they were shocked to have such a visitor who had crawled to the bedroom before they could even realise what was happening. Their screams soon brought a huge crowed and there was chaos as none knew what to do. A young brave person tried to shove a huge block of wood into the reptile’s fearsome open mouth and was attacked.   The Forest Dept then rushed to the spot and took the reptile to the Vandalur Zoological Park where a no. of its ilk already live.  There had been a few more sightings of crocs in neighbourhood especially in water bodies. 

There were confounding theories that a kite or a crow could have picked up a young infant from captivity, which could have slipped and fallen into a water body. The baby would have grown undetected and a mature adult may have been seen when it ventured out !! – a story close to figment of imagination……. But animals escapades from zoo are not entirely uncommon.

There were reports earlier that in Los Angeles, first some Zebras broke the lock on their gate and sneaked out, a chimpanzee scaled the wall, a kangaroo hoped out, an antelope dashed out of the zoo… such escapades were largely peaceful as the wayward animals did not cause any harm. But the one at San Francisco Zoo was not..    Tatiana was born in Denver in 2003 and brought to San Francisco in 2004 to be the mate of a siberian tiger.  In Dec 2006, this tiger bit the arm of a zoo keeper while feeding and then in Dec 2007, Tatiana escaped from her open-air enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo and attacked visitors killing one person and injuring two others.  The tiger had to be shot and killed.  In another unrelated incident at Dallas, a 300-pound gorilla named Jabari, escaped from his enclosure, injuring four people before he was shot to death.

Comparisons would never help… for the visitors to Vandalur would feel the slithering scare on hearing the news of the escape of a nine-foot Burmese python from its enclosure a week ago and is playing hide and seek with the zoo staff, giving many visitors the jitters.

TOI reports that a  seven-year-old boy visiting the zoo spotted the reptile in the open a couple of days ago and his father  informed the zoo officials. It was not news to them, since they knew a week ago that the serpent had escaped from its enclosure through a drain that had been left uncovered by the staff after cleaning.   It is stated that not  to scare away visitors, the zoo did not put up a notice. “The python is out there somewhere,” said a zoo official. “But don’t worry, pythons are not poisonous.”   The report states that the staff noticed the missing of the snake during the routine cleaning of the enclosure made lime a serpentarium.  These enclosures host four species of poisonous snakes, including king cobra, and ten species of non-poisonous snakes, including Indian rock pythons and Burmese pythons, all under a reptile keeper.

The Zoo officials claimed that this was the first time that a snake has escaped since its set up in 1989 and that they would soon get the snake.  Ironically, the python has been seen by visitors but not by zoo staff.  With many children visiting the zoo, it certainly does not sound safe. 

Knowing and not putting up a board even and still allowing visitors !!!   Is that so simple and can the Zoo Officials be so relaxed – in knowing that a dangerous one has escaped but still would not alert the visitors.  Is it that Zoo does not want to lose its regular stream of revenue or because the officials do not want to expose themselves ?   Are they not accountable and who will be responsible if the python were to do some harm to an unsuspecting visitor.  Pythons are known to  gobble up birds and small mammals and can crush a human being to death. The python uses its sharp teeth to seize the prey, then wraps its body around it and, contracting its muscles, kills it by constriction.

It certainly smacks callousness of the authorities… !!

Regards – S. Sampathkumar.