A deer fawn is growing up in Bhola under the care and affection of forest department boardman Nurullah, who is now both mother and father to it. The fawn has been named Shashi, and when called by name it runs up to everyone.

The fawn, about five and a half months old, now eats all kinds of human food. People of all ages crowd in every day to see it.

Nurullah, boardman at the Shashiganj beat in Tazumuddin upazila, said that on the morning of 30 January a mother deer came looking for food near the Hanu Dalal Bazar bridge in the remote Char Mozammel village of Chandpur union in Tazumuddin, and gave birth to a fawn. Around noon the same day, hearing the noise of people nearby, the mother ran away, leaving the fawn behind.

Locals told the union parishad chairman, who informed the forest department. Nurullah and four or five other forest department staff then rescued the fawn from Char Mozammel that night and brought it to the Shashiganj beat. Nurullah was given the job of raising it, cared for it devotedly and named it Shashi.

He said that for about three months he fed the fawn one and a half litres of cow's milk a day, then gradually started it on rice starch and grass. Now, besides grass, the deer eats rice, noodles, semai, muri-chanachur, tea and other human food with Nurullah.

"Wherever I go, the fawn runs after me. When I go to sleep, it climbs onto my bed and sits beside me," Nurullah said.

Having found Shashi only six months into his job, Nurullah seems to have forgotten the pain of being away from his family. But despite his attachment, he said, the rules require the fawn to be released into the forest.

Chandpur Union Parishad chairman AKM Sahidullah Kiron said locals told him around noon on 30 January that a deer fawn had been rescued at Char Mozammel. He informed the forest department and asked locals to look after the fawn until forest staff arrived.

He added that the fawn is now well and healthy, and that he sometimes visits the Shashiganj beat officer's office to see it.

Local residents of Tazumuddin, Md Sohel, Masum Billah, Md Lokman Hossain and Md Habib, said the fawn named Shashi had been raised for a long time at the forest department beat office in their area. People from the area and elsewhere crowd in to see it. When called by the name Shashi, it runs up to everyone, and people enjoy spending time with it, while the deer delights in their affection.

Shashiganj beat officer Gazi Abul Bashar said the fawn is well and healthy, and will be released deep into the forest as soon as instructions come from the higher authorities.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.