A supervisor at the Thiruvananthapuram zoo sustained injuries to his head after a tigress attacked him unexpectedly while he was cleaning its cage on Sunday morning. According to the zoo authorities, Ramachandran, supervisor at the zoo, had gone for a routine cleanup of six-year-old female Royal Bengal tigress Babitha’s cage at around 11 a.m. when the attack happened.

“The tigress was at the other end of the cage. So, the supervisor who was outside the cage did not expect it to move suddenly to his side. He was cleaning the cage, when it charged at him and struck at his head through the bars. Since tigers have retractable claws, it will come out whenever it raises its paws. Fortunately, he only suffered a relatively minor injury on his head,” said P.S. Manjula Devi, Director of the Department of Museums and Zoo.

Mr. Ramachandran was first taken to the General Hospital and later taken to the Government Medical College Hospital. He was discharged in the evening with four stitches to the head.

According to the zoo veterinary surgeon Nikesh Kiran, the Forest department had caught the tigress from Wayanad and translocated it to the zoo. As a rehabilitated tigress, it is kept in a cage and not in the natural enclosure for display to zoo visitors. No violent incident has been associated with the tigress after it was shifted to the zoo.

After the attack happened on Sunday, an emergency meeting was convened at the zoo, in which instructions were issued to the staff to not go too close to the cages. Another meeting to be chaired by the director has been scheduled for Monday.