By IANS
Kathmandu : More than three decades after Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray created a scientist, Professor Shanku, who could communicate with a crow, the fiction has come alive in Nepal with a 25-year-old claiming he can chat with the bird.
Gautam Sapkota, who lives in Makwanpurgadhi village in Thimi town, claims he can “talk” with wild crows and make them obey simple commands like “come”, “go” and “stay”.
Sapkota is trying to organise a conference of crows in Kathmandu so that he can make it to the Guinness Book of World Records, Nepal’s official media reported.
The son of a poor farmer, Sapkota was drawn to the ways of birds in his teens when he worked as a factory hand, the state-run Rising Nepal daily said.
He began wandering in village forests trying to track down bird nests and watch how birds behaved. After three years of bird watching, Sapkota says he can mimic to perfection the calls of 115 species of birds as well as six animals.
Of all the birdcalls he can imitate, crows are his forte. Sapkota says he can utter 13 different crow calls and get the birds to respond. He says he has keenly studied their ways and conversations and can communicate with them.
Since last month, Sapkota has stepped up his campaign to prove his prowess and bolster his Guinness claim.
On July 4, he held a programme at the prestigious Nepal Academy in Kathmandu where his calls attracted nearly 500 crows, the daily said. Last week, he repeated the feat in his hometown, where he first made a flock of crows appear at his call and then disperse at his command.
However, Sapkota’s plan to hold a conference of crows in Kathmandu’s open-air stadium, the traditional venue for major political programmes, has run into a hurdle.
He ruffled the feathers of the district administration when he asked for permission to use the venue for his novel programme. The authorities reportedly said it was best held after the period of political transition was over.
It is a blow for Sapkota, who says he was also reined in during the pre-democracy era in Nepal when the Maoist insurgency was on.
His forays in forests were treated with suspicion by the Maoists and the army alike. While the rebels accused him of spying for the army, the latter called him a Maoist spy.
The most recent bid by a Nepali to enter the Guinness records was made by a young boy, whose parents claim he is the shortest person in the world.
However, the claim was shot down by Guinness authorities who advised the parents to lay claim to the record only after the boy turned 18 and his height became stable.