Lone guard was untrained,defenceless

Gembal was also thin,weak and defenceless,his family said,dismissing officials’ guess that he might have been overconfident. “His right arm was burnt and he had trouble using it. Despite the injury,the park authorities had posted him to open and close the massive safari gates,” wife Tara Gembal said.

Sources in the 104-sq km national park — the safari spans 21 acres — said they are severely short-staffed. “There are 123 guards,of whom only two guards are exclusively on duty at the safari gates. One guard sits in the ticketing office and only one mans the gates. Such an accident wouldn’t have occurred if there had been two guards at the gates,” said a source.

Munde,who said the death was an “unexpected and unbelievable accident”,maintained the park has 324 guards of whom 80 are permanent. The ideal strength at a national park should be at least one well-trained guard per sq km,according to a wildlife activist.

According to the Central Zoo Authority’s Recognition of Zoo Act 2009,a zoo or a safari should employ guards who have been given intensive disaster management training. “The SGNP is listed with us as a zoo. For the past few years,we have been urging officials to send us a detailed masterplan on the park maintenance and security measures,but they have not yet complied,” said Brij Kishor Gupta of the CZA,adding they would ask for a report of the accident.

National parks such as Bannerghatta have staff trained in zoo management. At Bannerghatta and Chandigarh,CZA officials conduct workshops in zoo management,but they have held none at the SGNP. Munde said the SGNP’s zookeepers and animal-keepers are sent to Hyderabad for such workshops.

Munde said a committee of all deputy forest officers of the park has been set up to study the circumstances of the death. “We will evaluate the situation,study the post mortem reports and give our statement in a week,” he said.