Indian doctor unwilling to leave Ukraine without his pet panther and jaguar

As hundreds of Indian students wait to be evacuated, an Indian doctor is faced with a unique dilemma. Dr. Kumar, an orthopaedic surgeon, goes by the username Jaguar Kumar on social media.

Doctor Kumar is known online as Jaguar Kumar and is an orthopaedic surgeon. Despite being in the midst of the evacuation queue, he faces a unique challenge.

With his pets Yagwar the jaguar and Sabrina the black panther, he has taken refuge under his house near Donbas in south-eastern Ukraine.

As part of his YouTube channel 'Jaguar Kumar Telugu', which has over 84000 subscribers, Dr. Kumar has regularly documented his struggles when taking care of the two big cats and providing them food during the war.

Since childhood, Kumar, a native of Tanuku, a town in Andhra Pradesh's West Godavari district, has expressed his fascination with animals, in particular big cats; he dreamed of owning one after watching a Chiranjeevi film.

"I've been an avid animal lover since childhood. When I saw the movie Lankeswarudu, I was fascinated by Chiranjeevi's acts with the tiger. I saw the movie many times for both Chiranjeevi and the tiger," he had said.

Initially, Kumar was an aspiring actor who moved to Ukraine to pursue MBBS and worked there. He had made several unsuccessful attempts to adopt a lion cub or Bengal tiger until he was told by the local zoo about two years ago that they had a jaguar with poor health.

Kumar obtained a permit and brought home Sabrina, a black panther following the animal's treatment and restoration of its health.

Earlier this year, he brought home a black panther named Sabrina. As a way of earning supplementary income for taking care of them, he made YouTube videos.

Kumar demonstrates how hard it is to feed his pets, which are a jaguar and a panther, and survive the conflict in his videos.

A zoo would require him to travel 1,200 kilometers through a war-torn country, and Kumar fears the animals will be poached if he leaves them in the wild.

"I will protect them (Yagwar and Sabrina) until my last breath. I will never leave them behind. I will do whatever it takes to survive." Kumar said in a video two days before the war began.

Many Indians returning from Ukraine have brought along their pets, mostly cats and dogs, according to The New Indian Express. He had hoped the Indian government would allow him to bring home three dogs and cats