Karnataka: Pet parrot takes wing, family offers reward for finder

TUMAKURU: Ever since Rustum slipped out of the door and took flight, tasting freedom, Rio has
gone silent and refuses to eat. Rustum’s family, which loves animals and wildlife, hasbeen spending sleepless nights for the past four days, afterfailing to trace the African grey parrot. Arjun, his wife Ranjana and son Vihan, who live in Jayanagara in Tumakuru district, have been making all efforts to trace the bird.
They distributed pamphlets appealing for help, and announced a cash reward of Rs 50,000 for anyone who could give information about the parrot’s whereabouts.

Rustum, aged three, was allowed to fly free inside the house. When Arjun was trying to shift a cupboard through the door, Rustum flew out and perched on a honge tree by the road.The anxious family members rushed out to grab him, but couldn’t climb the tree. A helpful autodriver shinned up the tree but the parrot gave him the slip, and has been missing ever since. Neither did it return to see its mate Rio.

Three years ago, when the family was in Shivamogga, they had brought Rustumhome to fulfil son Vihan’s wish to have a pet parrot. They later got Rio to give him company, and would celebrate the parrots’ birthdays too. They shifted to Tumakuru three months ago. “Rio has stopped talking and eating food,” said Pallavi, Ranjana’s sister. Vihan, a Class II student, has stopped going to school, and the family is visibly depressed.

Their worry is that domesticated parrots find it hard to find food on their own, as they are conditioned as pets, and cannot survive for long on their own. The family now regrets bringing Rustum home.  

“We committed a mistake, and if we get back Rustum, we plan to shift the pair to Geodesic Aviary Dome in Kevadia in Gujarat, so these birds can make their own home there,” Arjun told The New Indian Express.