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This friendship between man and bird touches countless hearts
An online petition has been launched in India to bring two special friends back together. These are a farmer and an endangered crane.
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Farmer Mohammad Arif found an injured sarus crane in India and nursed it back to health. Since then there has been a deep connection between the two.
AFP
But authorities captured the bird and took it to a zoo four hours away. A recent reunion occurred, with the bird flapping its wings excitedly and jumping up and down.
AFP
Sarus cranes belong to the purple-necked cranes. The international umbrella organization for environmental protection IUCN classifies the species as “endangered”. According to the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), there are fewer than 20,000 specimens in India.
IMAGO/ITAR-TASS/ Sipa USA
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A friendship between a farmer and a crane is currently affecting the Indian people.
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The man had found the bird injured and then nursed it back to health, which is where this special bond was formed.
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The crane is currently in a quarantine cage that the authorities had captured. Thousands of people are demanding his release.
The unusual friendship between a farmer and a crane he rescued has in India a wave of sympathy triggered: In an online petition, almost 4,000 people demanded the release of the bird that had been captured by the authorities and is now housed in a zoo. “Is it a crime to make friends with people?” the text said.
Farmer Mohammad Arif found the injured sarus crane and lovingly nursed it back to health. Since then, the two have been inseparable. After a few weeks, Arif released his protégé into freedom. But the animal stayed close from Arif’s house, sometimes followed his rescuer’s every step and even ate out of his hand.
300,000 followers on Instagram
«The bird stayed with its family during the day and returned to us in the evening. Or he would come in the afternoon when he was hungry and wait outside our door,” Arif told AFP on Thursday. Videos of the bird and his friend went viral on online networks. Almost 300,000 followers follow the two on Instagram.
But the friendship was cut short last month when authorities captured the crane and placed it in a zoo a four-hour drive from Arif’s hometown. Since then he has been sitting in a cramped quarantine cage. Media reports of the bird’s plight have now triggered a wave of sympathy from the Indian public.
“He will come back to me”
Online footage of Arif’s visit to the zoo earlier in the week shows the two’s emotional reunion, with the bird flapping its wings and jumping up and down excitedly. Arif now hopes that the petition will be successful. If it were up to him, “his” crane should be released either in the forest or in a bird sanctuary, Arif said. But he was also confident that the bird would return to him: “The moment they release him, he will come back to me.”
The reunion between Mohammad Arif and his feathered friend has touched countless hearts online.
Youtube
Sarus cranes belong to the purple-necked cranes. The international umbrella organization for environmental protection IUCN classifies the species as “endangered”. According to the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), there are fewer than 20,000 specimens in India.