Saras crane taken away from rescuer goes missing from UP bird sanctuary: report

A sarus crane in UP's Rae Bareli which was recently taken away by the forest department from its rescuer Mohd Arif has gone missing, as per reports.

Nicknamed as Bachcha, the bird has not been seen since March 22 and searches were on to locate the bird, IANS reported.

A senior forest official said there is a possibility that the bird fled the sanctuary in search of Arif and lost its way. Arif was looking after the bird for the past one year and the bird had reportedly developed an attachment with him.

The bird apparently refused to leave Arif after forest officials came to take it citing the Wildlife Protection Act and saying that a wild bird cannot be kept in captivity.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on March 22 slammed the forest officials saying that in the name of freeing the state bird of Uttar Pradesh, the forest department took away the Sarau crane from the man who was looking after it and the bird was now missing.

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