Children’s Day is one day in the year children in India get to have the time of their lives. Many children from Hyderabad decided to go to Nehru Zoological Park on the 14th of November to see the wild side of life. But little did the children know they would be chased down by the khaki clad zookeepers. A photojournalist Suresh Kumar took a trip to the zoo on Children’s Day expecting to get pictures of children having a fun filled day.
To Suresh’s horror, he ended up photographing the zoo officials chasing and hitting children with sticks. The pictures capture the fear in the children’s eyes as they try to dodge the officials. In an exclusive interview with The News Minute, Suresh said, “I was in the zoo to capture some interesting photos since it was Children’s Day. But what I witnessed was madness.”
Suresh added, “In a bid to ease the crowd, the staff provided entry from the exit gate too. While I was taking pictures of the crowd, I suddenly saw the staff charging at the children and heard children shouting. I took photos of the chaos. Children were being chased away, and a few fell too.”
The curator of the zoo Shivani Dogra was questioned about the incident. She feigned innocence initially but after seeing the images said, “The photos are outrageous. We will take stern action against the staff responsible. If someone was injured we apologize.”
Shivani reported the staff was summoned to inquire about the incident. She was quoted saying, “They (zookeepers) told me that a few children tried to barge into the zoo from the exit gate. There was a huge crowd that day. My staff told me that very few teachers came along with the school children, which prompted the children to indulge in the mischief, because of which the staff would have tried to stop them.”
Nehru Zoological Park hosted more than 24,000 people on Children’s Day. The NZP spokesperson Hanifullah disregarded the claim of the exit gate being opened to ease the crowd. He was quoted saying, “Few children might have tried entering from the exit gate without tickets, forcing the staff to run behind the children. However, we regret the incident.”
