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Journalism of Courage
A case filed by the Uttar Pradesh forest department, a squabble between two political parties, and a bird in the middle of it all. A war of words has erupted between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the BJP over a sarus crane, which is UP’s state bird, while the state forest department has registered a case against the man who nursed it back to health and developed a bond with it.
After Akhilesh Yadav lashed out at the government on Sunday for taking the bird away from Amethi resident Mohammad Arif and booking him under the Wildlife Protection Act, state BJP president Bhupendra Singh Chaudhary accused the SP president of “doing politics in the name of Arif and under the guise of a sarus crane”. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, meanwhile, on Monday announced that special parks should be developed for the sarus crane and swamp deer (barasingha), which is the state animal.
The beginning of this entire episode can be traced back to February 2022, when 35-year-old Arif brought home the injured crane. He took care of it for the next 13 months. The two “friends” subsequently became local celebrities as their videos went viral on social media. On March 5, Akhilesh visited Arif and the bird and tweeted photographs with them.
On March 21, the forest department moved the crane from Arif’s house to the Samaspur Bird Sanctuary in Raebareli. Akhilesh claimed this was “because he had visited the duo in Amethi”, an allegation that officials dismissed. But the bird “disappeared” and the following day it was found almost half a kilometre from the sanctuary by a man who claimed he saved it from a pack of dogs. On Saturday (March 25), the bird was shifted to Kanpur Zoo.
Akhilesh, accompanied by Arif and SP leaders, on Sunday lashed out at the BJP at a press conference in Lucknow. “Arif can vote for me, but sarus can’t. You may have enmity with Arif, but why the sarus? You have a fight with us samajwadis … Why does the CM (Yogi Adityanath) have an issue with me getting photographs clicked with the sarus?” asked the SP chief.
This drew an immediate response from Chaudhary who said everyone in UP knows about Adityanath’s affection for birds and other animals. “The sarus crane has not been held captive in the zoo. It has been kept there for conservation,” said the state BJP chief.
Another BJP leader, echoing Chaudhary, said, “The SP leadership is trying to impress Muslim voters. Earlier, he (Akhilesh) was criticised by his party workers for maintaining silence on the issues of other Muslim leaders of the party.”
Taking a dig at the SP leader, a BJP insider said, “He (Akhilesh) has never displayed so much concern about any of his party workers or a common man.”
Dismissing the BJP leaders’ statements, SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said, “The BJP is saying something of very little value. The BJP government was supposed to be sensitive towards the sarus crane and the person who nursed and helped it recover from injury. But the government is doing injustice to them.”
SP’s Amethi district working president Ram Udit Yadav said local party leaders told Akhilesh about Arif and the bird during the SP chief’s visit earlier this month. Yadav claimed Arif had been an SP worker for the past three years.
But Arif denied any official links with the Opposition party. “I was never a member of the SP. I came into contact with Akhilesh Yadav ji when he visited my place to meet the crane. After his visit, several SP leaders and several other people contacted me. It is also a fact that only the SP offered me support in the matter.”
Asked about the BJP and the SP locking horns over the episode, the 35-year-old said, “I don’t see any politics in it. I am not demanding that the crane be returned to me. My only demand is that the sarus crane should be free in its natural habit in the jungles in Amethi. It was living around the water bodies spread near my home. It was not my pet. Since I helped it recover from injury, it started coming to my home for food and it used to stray in the fields with my pet, a rottweiler dog.”
