Even as hundreds of Indian students remain stuck in Ukraine awaiting evacuation, an Indian doctor in Ukraine is facing a unique conundrum.
Girikumar Patil, who bought the two cats from the Kyiv zoo about 20 months ago, says he will not leave home without his pets. He has lived for over six years in Severodonetsk, a small town located in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Kumar hails from Tanuku town in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. In recent media interviews conducted before the ongoing war began, Kumar has spoken about his love for animals since childhood, and his wish to raise big cats as pets after watching a Chiranjeevi film as a kid.
Patil went to Ukraine in 2007 to study medicine, and later settled down in Donbas. TNIE reported that he later joined a local government hospital as an orthopaedic.
He found the jaguar "orphaned an ill" in a local zoo and with the permission of authorities, adopted it. Dr Patil has named the animal Yasha. Two months ago, he brought the black panther Sabrina as a mate to Yasha.
The Indian government has allowed several evacuees to bring their pets with them, but for Dr Patil, it will not be an easy task.
Dr Patil, also an actor with a few Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam TV serials to his credit, goes by the sobriquet Jaguar Kumar on YouTube, where he has more than 81,000 subscribers.
He expressed hope that the Indian government would allow him to take home all his pets.
“I will never abandon my pets to save my life. Of course, my family is urging me to return. My pets are my children. I’ll stay with them and protect them until my last breath,” he told TNE.
Meanwhile, Dr Patil and his brother Ram are helping Indian students arrange their travel documents to return home from Ukraine.
