The gaur, Indian bison, was found in Chinnakondur of Choutuppal mandal on Thursday morning.
Hyderabad:An attempt to ‘rescue’ a gaur that officials feared was making its way towards the outskirts of Hyderabad was put off for a day after it charged at and injured a veterinarian from the Nehru Zoological Park who was part of a team of forest department officials trying to catch it.
The gaur, Indian bison, was found in Chinnakondur of Choutuppal mandal on Thursday morning.
In the evening, zoo veterinarian Dr Shahnawaz was trying to approach the gaur to attempt to tranquilise it when the animal, believed to be weighing close to 1,000 kg, charged at him from behind some bushes and slammed into him. “Firing a tranquilising dart typically requires a distance of not more than around 40 metres. The gaur charged at him as he was getting into a position to fire the dart,” a forest department official said.
Dr Shahnawaz was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment. Since it did not have an X-ray machine and Dr Shanawaz complained of pain in his chest, he was rushed to a private hospital in LB Nagar where he is being treated.
A forest department official who was at the hospital, said in the evening that doctors were checking on him and he was reported to be out of danger but may have suffered some broken ribs from the impact of the animal running into him.
The gaur, a male, was first spotted in Pallerla of Atmakur mandal of Yadadri-Bhongir district on January 30 after which forest officials lost track of it. On Thursday morning, the animal was found by some villagers in Chinnakondur mandal of Choutuppal mandal who informed the local forest department staff. Forest officials who reached the village first planned to drive the animal towards a nearby forest patch, away from the village but that did not succeed.
A decision was taken to rescue the gaur and tranquilise it, and then take it to the Kawal tiger reserve where there are several herds of the animal, Chief Wildlife Warden Elusing Meru said. The decision was taken to prevent the animal from getting into urbanised areas as it could get into conflict with people, he said.
Chinnakondur is just about 30 km from the Outer Ring Road that encircles Hyderabad.
A fresh rescue attempt will be made on Friday and all through Thursday night, the gaur will be tracked and followed, he said. For now, the focus is on controlling the crowd, ensuring the animal is not disturbed, officials said.
Earlier in the day, 70-year-old Padamati Mallareddy, a farmer from Chinnakondur, said he was surprised to see a large bull near his agriculture well. “It is big, much bigger than our cattle, and has big horns. We never saw anything like it before. It is almost 8 feet tall,” he said. “I was putting out some grass and hay for my two buffaloes and some of us saw this big animal. It was not doing anything, just stood there for some time and went into the fields,” he said.
Incidentally, this is not the first time a vet from the zoo was injured by a bovine. In January 2021, Dr M.A. Hakeem, who heads the veterinary department at the zoo, was injured when a cow that was running amok in Pahadi Shareef area, charged at him and trampled upon him when he was attempting to tranquilize it resulting in injuries to him.
