so harry potters now an ecooffender making indians obsessed with keeping owls as pets leading to their dwindling population says jairam ramesh er say whatpet shop owners whos buying owlswho knew that the dwindling population of owls in india would be attributed to the snowy pet of a famous english fictional character harry potter is in the news but for a rather unusual reason apparently environment minister jairam ramesh has a take on the films based on jk rowlings books on the boy wizard he thinks theyre making the indian middle class obsessed with keeping owls as pets for their children leading to a decline in their population but are pet shop owners selling any owls to these potter obsessed middle class pet lovers vikas sharma from dr sharmas pet clinic in moti bagh states i have never encountered such a request for owls as pets no ones ever made such a demand kaushik from unique pet shop in saket adds no no one buys owls and theres never been a demand for them its definitely not a harry potter trendin fact pet shops and pet owners alike have been slightly surprised by these charges of heartless potterinspired domestication of owls sudhir sharma of ideal pets expresses disbelief at the statement we do sell birds but never in the history of the store have i sold owls neither has there been a request for the birds he says sounding puzzled when asked about the issuesure harry potter is a hit but it seems itll be a while longer before indians discover the obsession that the minister seems to have spotted so astutely or have they got an owler they didnt deservepet owners but we dont want owlswe spoke to readers whove read and seen the harry potter books and movies who collect the merchandise and whose choices in pets verge on the bizarre however there was little evidence of the obsessionnineteenyearold devyani shankar although a big fan of the harry potter series seems unaware of the phenomenon ive had australian lovebirds turtles before it became illegal to keep them fish dogs squirrels parrots guinea pigs and mynahs but not owls i would never go for a pet owl not just because it is illegal but because it does not appeal to me as a pet in any way apoorva dutt 21 who owns a pair of rats and a fighter fish agrees im a fan of jk rowling but keeping an owl as a pet would be creepy and a little too extreme come on its illegalthe same goes for anshu radhakrishnan whod rather buy a cute and loveable beagle as a gift for her children 6 and 10 than owls it would be a pain to maintain them as much as my kids love harry potter i would never indulge them in this way nor would i encourage them to do something illegal she saysankit kochhar is pretty sure that owls would never qualify as pets in india