On March 21 the Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) Forest Department visited Mohammed Arif Khan to relocate a sarus crane, U.P.’s State bird, from his home in Mandka village in Amethi to Raebareli’s Samaspur Bird Sanctuary. The bird, which Mr. Khan claims he found injured and lying unconscious in his fields last year had taken a shine to the family after they took care of it for over two months.
“After treatment I thought it would fly away. We took it to the fields, but the bird refused to leave us. He was like family to me, and we ate and lived together,” claimed Mr. Khan. A video of the sarus crane following Mr. Khan on his scooter was widely shared on social media last month.
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav had visited Mr. Khan to witness the bonding. A day after the bird was taken to the sanctuary, Mr. Yadav in a tweet, claimed that the bird was missing. He tagged a media report which quoted the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Rupesh Srivastava as saying this. “Such government negligence towards the State bird of U.P. is a serious matter. The BJP government [currently in power in the State] should immediately find the sarus. Otherwise, bird lovers across world will agitate. Shameful!” Mr. Yadav wrote in Hindi.
Mr. Khan, on March 22, sat with the SP president in a press conference in Lucknow where Mr. Yadav alleged that in the name of freeing the State bird, the administration took away the sarus crane from the person who was his family. “It remains to be seen what action is taken to free the bird from the one who feeds it,” said the SP chief at the press meet targeting the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who posted pictures feeding a peacock.
However, the administration said this is untrue and that the whereabouts of the bird are clear. The same officer, Mr. Srivastava told local media that the bird was seen in the sanctuary on Thursday morning and is not missing.
