Dr Girikumar Patil with his pets
Doha: An Indian doctor is holed up in a basement in Ukraine with his two pets - leopard and panther. Dr Girikumar Patil is not ready to abandon the animals and fly back to his home country, according to media reports.
Hailing from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, Dr Patil is in Severodonetsk, in the highly conflicted Donbas region. Apart from his big cats - Yagwar and panther Sabrina - he also has three Italian mastiff dogs.
According to the bio on his YouTube channel - Jaguar Kumar Telugu – Yagwar, short name Yasha, is a crossbreed with a male Amur leopard and female black jaguar and is the most endangered and dangerous big cat, and Sabrina is a female black panther.
He writes, "I am the only one Indian in the world successfully raising most endangered and dangerous big cat and I dedicated my life for endangered big cats. My all-time dream is to raise endangered big cats like Sumatran Tigers and Amur leopards and Jaguars."
Dr Patil spends most of his earnings on his pets and tries to raise additional funds through his YouTube channel. Through the channel he aims to raise awareness about endangered wild big cats for the purpose of wild species preservation, education and awareness.
According to reports, Dr Patil lives barely 80kms from the borders with Russia, but it was difficult to reach there because of Russian forces in the region. There had been intermittent power cuts and internet breakdowns in the neighbourhood, but he has been able to post video messages on social media regularly.
He adds that he is the only Indian there and at night he is alone in the neighbourhood as most of his neighbours have moved to nearby villages. He plans to hold out for the sake of his pets.
