A man was mauled to death by a lion after jumping into its enclosure to take a selfie with the animal.
On Thursday, Prahlad Gujjar was killed by the Asiatic lion in Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh in India.
Man dares lion for a selfie, jumps into enclosure, gets mauled.
40-year-old Prahlad Gujjar jumped into a lion enclosure for a selfie in Tirupati SV Zoo park. He also behaved in a way to provoke the lion. After the lion attacked him, he made an in vain attempt to save himself by… pic.twitter.com/4vWaRNkSZM
— Sudhakar Udumula (@sudhakarudumula) February 15, 2024
Gujjar scaled a 12-foot high fence and jumped into the lion’s enclosure in an attempt to take a selfie with the animal.
According to a report by The Independent, Tirupati police Mallika Garg said that security guard raised an alarm when they saw him trying to scale the fence and ran towards him. But he jumped into the water tank inside the enclosure.
“When he saw the security guard running towards him, Gujjar jumped onto a water tank and climbed over the 12-foot-high fence surrounding the enclosure, which has a lion and two lionesses,” says Officer Garg, according to The Independent.
“He jumped and fell in front of the lions, which mauled him. He died on the spot.”
The three lions reportedly stood near the remains of the man until the animals’ caretakers coaxed them into the feeding cages and the man’s body was retrieved.
The particular lion that mauled Gujjar has now been moved to a separate cage in the zoo where he will be kept under observation.
Selfie-Related Deaths are a New Public Health Risk
According to recent research, selfie-related deaths constitute a new public health risk — with the most common deaths coming about from people falling off cliffs and waterfalls while taking a photo.
In a paper published in September, researchers found that selfie-related injury and deaths have become a public health concern amid the near ubiquitous use of smartphones and social media apps.
The paper scraped news reports of selfie-related deaths as well as a cross-sectional study by the iO Foundation that found 379 people were killed while taking selfies around the world between January 2008 and July 2021.
The researchers identified falls from height as the most common type of selfie-related injury. They said that tourists were most at risk, with the most common cause of death being falling from cliffs or waterfalls while attempting to take a selfie.
Drowning while attempting to take a selfie was the second most common cause of death.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.