Udupi: Raid on Private Zoo – Several Cases Registered against Sudheendra Aithal
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (KD)
Udupi, Oct 25: Forest officers have registered cases against Sudheendra Aithal under Wildlife Conservation Act 1972 for keeping rare animals illegally. Earlier the officers had assured of taking action against Aithal only after examining the animals seized from his home.
As reported earlier in these columns, Sudheendra Aithal’s private zoo which had been a favourite spot for locals to visit was raided on charges that the rare animals were kept illegally and that Sudheendra had no permission to run a zoo.
The department is yet to conduct the examination of animals but already the officers have booked cases against Aithal under section 9, 38(4), 38(1), 39, 40, 44 (2), 50, 51 for violating Wildlife Conservation Act 1972. The Act allows for arresting the persons who are rearing animals without prior permission of the state government.
Meanwhile Sudheendra Aithal has been hospitalized and is recovering from the shock following the raid on his house conducted by the deputy conservator R K Srivastav.
Animals that were rescued from the house of Aithal, few of them have been taken to Mysore Zoo and few of them are abandoned at Aithal’s house.
It is also learnt that few of the birds and animals died on the way to Mysore Zoo and the remaining of them are not taking food without the master and his love. The officials have left behind some of the animals at Aithal’s home in Saligrama starving as there is no one to take care of them.
Besides this, Aithal has been booked under Prevention of Violence against Wildlife Act 1960. According to the Act, chaining of animals in a cage is a crime. It is unfortunate that all these cases have been filed against a man who took care of the animals like his own children.