New Delhi: An Uttar Pradesh man who became popular on social media for rescuing a sarus crane and taking care of it for 13 months has been booked under the Wildlife Protection Act, The Indian Express reported.
Thirty-five-year-old Mohammad Arif found the injured crane in his village, Mandkha of Amethi district, in February last year and brought it home. In videos shared on social media, the crane and Arif are seen sharing a bond.
The sarus is protected under Schedule 3 of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, which prohibits individuals from keeping or feeding it.
“Within weeks, the bird started recovering, and soon it started flying too. It stayed in the courtyard outside the house. But it never returned to the wild for good,” Arif told The Indian Express. “It would stay in the jungle when it wanted. Then, in the evenings it would come to my house and eat with me. I never held it captive.”
On Tuesday, according to the newspaper, officials went to Arif’s house and said the bird could no longer stay with him. They had received orders from the Wildlife Department to confiscate it. Arif was booked under the Wildlife Protection Act on March 9. He has been asked to record his statement on April 2 at 11 am.
“I don’t know about wildlife laws. I’m a farmer. But if I had caged it, tied it up and hadn’t allowed it to go anywhere, then I could understand the forest department would want to take it away,” Arif told the BBC. “But you saw that it flew around and came and went as it pleased. Did you ever see that I was constricting its movements?”
In a press conference on Wednesday, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav criticised the UP government’s action. “The friendship and care he has provided to the crane resulted in a rare form of bond between the two,” he said. “The change in the bird’s behaviour is a subject of study. But saras was confiscated from Arif because I went to meet him. I had gone to congratulate him and that resulted in their separation. Is this democracy?”
Earlier, Yadav had visited the bird and Arif, and even taken photos with the too.
After being taken from Arif, the bird was first placed in the Raebareli sanctuary. It “disappeared” from there and was found by a villager half a kilometre away, being chased by dogs, The Indian Express reported. It was then shifted to the Kanpur zoo. “It is being shifted to the Kanpur zoo as it had changed its habits after staying near humans for more than a year,” Manoj Sonkar, Lucknow Conservator (Endangered Species) told the newspaper.