Sudheendra Aithal who resides near Saligrama Gurunarasimha Temple has been illegally keeping a number of birds and animals since the last 25 years. This came to light when a team led by Murali of the forest division of Bangalore raided the house.

The team seized deer, turtles, Sambhars and different species of snakes from the house and steps were taken to send these animals to the Mysore Zoo.  Speaking to presspersons, Kundapur zone Deputy Conservator of Forest R K Srivastav said the wild animals were being kept since many years without obtaining any official permission and this is a punishable offence. Mr Sudheendra even used to fix entry fees for the visitors who came to watch these animals.

These animals will be taken to Mysore and a health check-up will be done there, he added.

Mr Sudheendra expressed his displeasure over the raid.

 He said though such rare animals do not get proper food in the forest, the Forest Department did not respond to the problem. Moreover, when smugglers kill such wild animals, the department did not wake up from its slumber, he criticised. “When I have been protecting such animals, I never received any encouragement,” he lamented.

The visitors who were present in the zoo when the raid took place, said that the raid was a wrong step taken by the department and that an injustice has been meted out to Mr Sudheendra. 

The public have requested the department officials to provide him a zoo near Udupi or provide an alternate job.
They said when endangered species like lions are dying in the Pilikula Nisargadhama and Mysore zoo, raiding the zoo which has been looking after the animals well is condemnable. They also demanded that the animals must be returned to the zoo.

In fact, they held arguments with the officials for over half an hour.

In the melee, Mr Sudheendra fell unconscious due to shock and was admitted to a private hospital in Kundapur hospital.

Kishor Kumar, Sadashiv Bhat, Satish Kumar and Yogeeshwar of Forest Department were present during the raid.