Doctor 'Jaguar Kumar' Is In Now In Poland, Leaving Behind His Pet Jaguar And Panther In Ukraine
An Indian-origin doctor who had refused to leave Ukraine when the conflict broke out earlier this year, without his 'pets' had no choice but to flee.
Dr. Gidikumar Patil, known as Jaguar Kumar after his unusual pets a jaguar and panther is currently living in Warsaw, Poland.
He was forced to leave Ukraine without pets
According to PTI, the Andhra-born Orthopaedic doctor, who is now a Ukrainian citizen was forced to leave his pets behind with a local farmer when he left Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, in search of alternate sources of income.
Patil says he badly misses them and has appealed to the Indian government to help rescue Yasha, a male rare "lep-jag" hybrid between a leopard and jaguar, and Sabrina, a female black panther.
Seeks Indian government's help
With the Indian embassy in Kyiv unable to help, he said his message for the government of India would be to help him through his ¡°conundrum¡±.
¡°My humble message is to immediately consider and rapidly act to fix this conundrum with the best possible solution, keeping in view of the exact current situation of the cats and an emphasis on their immediate safety,¡± Patil told PTI.
¡°My feeling staying away from my cats is too intense; at times depression, wistful reminiscences of those fond memories and apprehensions about their well-being and fate overall,¡± he said.
How he got the unusual pets
Patil was working in a now bombed hospital at Svavtove in Severodonetsk when the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in February this year.
He had acquired his two unusual pets from a zoo in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv around two years ago and has been devoted to them ever since.
Through his YouTube channel with over 62,000 subscribers, Patil has been streaming updates of his curious life with the big cats as pets over the past few months and says his dream project is to receive enough funding for a breeding project to help protect the endangered species.
In fact, it was these videos that protected him from the Russian onslaught on his way out of Luhansk as they proved his neutrality in the conflict.
Ran out of saving to feed his pets
Patil was forced to leave home in Ukraine with a bag carrying his clothes, $100 and a few thousand roubles in cash. He had exhausted all his savings and sold part of his farmland, two apartments, two cars, his motorcycle and camera for a little over $100,000, the BBC reported.
After the war began, he spent up to$300 feeding his cats - some 5kg of meat (mostly chicken) - every day. As the situation worsened, Patil decided to leave the cats with the caretaker, cross the border, earn some money and return. He had kept enough food to last three months in the freezer for his cats and paid the caretaker $2,400 as three months of wages, it said.
Wants the pets to be moved to safety
For the safety of his pets, Patil says he is open to any solution that any friendly country is willing to offer - whether it is closer to their current home in neighbouring western Ukraine or somewhere in Europe or India.
¡°The principal issue is whether I can continue authorised access to them, which is crucial as this actually is a serious project. I'm not sure of the wildlife rules and legislations in India, whether they will permit it,¡± said Patil.
¡°I'm pretty hopeful it works out, but first they should be moved to relative safety by the governments with immediate and effective action. Basically, the fundamental concept of raising these remarkable cats is to procreate these 'panther hybrids' by persistent breeding until they sire the desired hybrid, perhaps the first in its kind, which would then be raised and perpetuated into the wild,¡± he said.
India repatriated ptes of citizens in Ukraine
In the early days of the conflict, many Indians had refused to leave the warzone without their pets, mostly dogs and cats.
The Indian government too had refused to repatriate the pets of Indian nationals in the conflict zone.
This was later changed and many including students were able to fly to safety in India with their pets.
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