Man’s friendship with wild bird ends in legal tangle - Times of India

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When Mohammad Arif came across a tall and beautiful redhead with a limp from a wounded leg on a crop field near his home in UP’s Amethi in February last year, he took her in, nursed her and she stayed on, developing a strong and rare friendship with her caregiver. Arif, 30, is now in trouble as he has been charged with keeping a protected Sarus crane, UP’s state bird.
The law has separated them. His feathered friend was taken to Samaspur bird sanctuary in Rae Bareli, but she flew away and was spotted by a villager in Bisaiyya, where forest officials caught her again. The crane is now in Kanpur zoo, where it will be quarantined for a fortnight.
“I did not hold it captive. The bird got warmth, love and hence, chose to stay and never returned to the wild,” said Arif of Jodhpur Mandkha village, who nursed the crane back to health in about three months.
Arif took videos and photos of his friend and posted them on social media, drawing the attention of netizens as well as authorities. On March 21 this year, the forest department came knocking on his door and took away the bird, but it fled its new home at Samaspur bird sanctuary. The next day, it was sighted and captured half-a-kilometre from Samaspur. The crane was trying to fend off a pack of feral dogs.
Chief wildlife warden Sunil Chaudhary ordered the bird to be shifted to Kanpur, where it has become a must-see curio for zoo-goers. “A team of doctors examined the bird. Its behaviour is normal,” said zoo director KK Singh.
Arif faces charges under the Wildlife Protection Act as the Sarus crane is a Schedule 3 protected species. “We have asked him to record his statement (on April 2),” assistant forest conservator Ranveer Mishra said Sunday.
Action has already started on the politicalfront, though, as the governing BJP and the opposition Samajwadi Party shot barbs at each other. UP BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary slammed SP chief Akhilesh Yadav of “using the bird” to do politics in the “name of Arif ”.
“The SP chief will have to understand the difference between a cow and a Sarus,” Chaudhary said on Sunday.
This was in response to Akhilesh’s criticism of the government for sending the bird to the zoo. The former CM posted on Saturday a couple of videos of the Sarus, including a clip of the bird inside its zoo enclosure. “The Sarus has been sent to Kanpur zoo… Will Golu be sent to the Gorakhpur zoo as well?” he tweeted. By Golu, he was apparently referring to Gullu, CM Yogi Adityanath’s pet dog.

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