Will support family of attendant killed by tigress, says Arunachal Minister

Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh environment and forest minister Mama Natung has assured to extend all possible assistance to the family of Late Pouluch Karmakar who was killed by a tigress at the Biological Park (Itanagar Zoo) here on Tuesday.

Natung, who along with Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) RK Singh and other senior forest officers of the department visited the Biological Park on Wednesday to take stock of the present situation, expressed his sadness over the unfortunate incident.

Besides promising to help the family of the deceased get the ex-gratia as per the norms of the state government, the minister also assured to employ one of the eligible persons from Karmakar’s family.

Natung later also visited the Krall where the incident took place and interacted with the park officials, particularly with the animal attendants at length.

It was observed that the incident could be a case of negligence on the part of Late Karmakar.

The minister, however, directed the PCCF and the environment and forest principal secretary to constitute a five-member fact-finding committee to look into the incident and submit the report to his office within a week. 

Karmakar, 35, a zoo attendant of the Itanagar Zoo died after being mauled by Chippi, a Royal Bengal tigress on Tuesday.

According to the zoo officials, the incident occurred at 2.30 pm on Tuesday when Karmakar entered the tigress’s cage to clean the water pond.

Meanwhile, Itanagar sub-divisional police officer Kamdam Sikom said that the body of the deceased was handed over to his family members following a post mortem at the R K Mission Hospital here.