Hyderabad mechanic held for selfie with endangered species at Nehru zoo

HYDERABAD: Criticism and commentson Facebook may not get you on the wrong side of law, but a selfie with endangered species will certainly do.

A Hyderabad youth Mohammad Abdul alias Fazal Sheikh who posted his selfie standing on a rare endangered 50 year old Galapagos tortoise on Facebook was arrested by police for illegally entering the enclosure in Nehru Zoological Park.

The boy, a mechanic at an auto garage in Old city had a selfie [pix clicked by his friends in May last year during a visit to the premier zoo in old city of Hyderabad]. In one photo, he is seen standing on the Tortoise and in the other he is getting close to an ostrich. Few animal lovers who found the photos making circles in the social network made a complaint to the curator of the Zoological Park who initiated action.

A local daily carried the youth's pictures standing on the tortoise, yesterday, following which the Zoo authorities filed a compliant. "A local daily had carried the photos after which Zoo authorities lodged a complaint. After verifying with the newspaper and the boy's Facebook profile, Mohd Abdul was picked up last night," the officials said.

"It is surprising to note that there are people there in the background of the photo where he was standing on the hapless tortoise, but no one seems to care," Curator of the Nehru Zoological garden, G Ramakrishna Rao said. He added that the park spread over 380 acres is so large that his 90 member security staff could not keep eye on every visitor and enclosures.

The police after arresting Fasal identified him as a habitual offender .He is a habitual offender and has been entering enclosures of rare animals in the zoo and taking selfies and posting them on social media day after day. "The boy says he has done it to get more likes and "just for fun," Bahadurpura Station Inspector Harish Kaushik said.

The police after receiving a complaint from the Zoo authorities traced Fazal's address by sending him a fake "add me" in the name of a girl. He immediately responded with his address. Police then nabbed him on Thursday morning.

Abdul was booked on charge of trespassing under relevant IPC section and relevant provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, Kaushik added. Few vernaculars and English daily also published the photographs of Fazal whose clippings he retained in an album at his residence.

Trespassing is not a new problem with the famous Zoo Park here. In August 2009, an intoxicated visitor ended up with a mauled arm after trying to feed grass to a white tiger. In 2000, a tigress Sakhi was killed and skinned by some anti socials after they entered the safari through the historic water reservior-Miralam Tank abutting it. A property dealer Mohd. Salahuddin was caught for his involvement in the case five years later.