The owner of Xora - Bar and Kitchen and five others have been booked by the Forest Department under the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, for presenting exotic animals before the customers and also allowing them to play with the animals.
Xora, a lounge bar in Hyderabad’s Jubilee Hills organised a wildlife-themed party last Sunday, when it had put a python, an iguana and a Bengal cat on display. The bar even shared photos and videos from the event on their Instagram stories. An inquiry into this activity was conducted following a complaint by a wildlife enthusiast on Twitter.
On a complaint from Ashish Chowdhary, a Twitter user, Special Chief Secretary of Municipal Administration and Urban Development Arvind Kumar took note of the incident and forwarded the tweet to the police and the forest department for necessary action.
On Tuesday, May 30, following an investigation, the District Forest Officer booked Vinay Reddy, owner of Xora - Bar and Kitchen, Yasir Hussain (the person who loaned the animals), Bobby Naidu (Manager), Karthik, Tarun and Vamsi (employees) under various sections of Wildlife (Protection) Act.
While the bar claimed to have all the documents needed to show only the animals owned by them had been on display, in the investigation it was proved that the animals belonged to Yasir, a pet shop owner. And Yasir did not have documents to own a python.
“Karthik, Tarun and Vamsi were handing out the animals for others to touch and dance with them. There are many complaints against these accused, we are in the process of verifying them. A thorough inquiry is underway,” Hyderabad District Forest Officer M Joji told TNM.
The accused have been booked under sections 9 (No person shall hunt any wild animal specified in Schedules I, II, III and IV except as provided under section 11 and section 12), 49 (No person shall purchase, receive or acquire any captive animal, wild animal, other than vermin, or any animal article, trophy, uncured trophy or meat derived therefrom otherwise than from a dealer..) 39 (No person shall without the prior permission of the Chief Wildlife Warden acquire or keep anything in his possession or control, transfer such property by way of gift or sale, destroy or damage such government property, and 50 (require any such person to produce for inspection any captive animal, wild animal, animal article, meat..).
Meanwhile, officials seized 14 Persian cats, three Bengal cats, two iguanas, two pairs of cockatoos, two sugar gliders and a sun conure bird from Yasir, stating that the animals were protected under Schedule 4 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 and cannot be put on display or be handled for fun.