With Eid-ul-Azha approaching, cattle markets have already opened, and as every year large bulls with colourful names are appearing across the country. Farmers who have raised them carefully in the hope of a good price bring them out in public, and people take a keen interest in the giant animals and what they will fetch. This year one of them is Gaibandha's 'Lal Badsha'.

Lal Badsha lives at the house of Sushil Muhuri, next to Kotiar Bhita Government Primary School in North Uria (Kotiar Bhita) village of Uria union, Fulchhari upazila. His owner, Nishi Chandra Das, has raised him with great care. The 18-maund bull is to be sold for Tk 7.5 lakh.

Lal Badsha is as calm in temperament as he is large. The bull measures about 9 feet 2 inches in length, with a width and height given as 5 feet 7 inches. He has caused a stir in the area, and there is no shortage of interest in the Sahiwal bull, which weighs more than 18 maunds. The asking price is Tk 7.5 lakh, but buyers who have come to the farm so far have offered at most Tk 4.5 lakh to Tk 5 lakh. Nishi Chandra will sell if he gets a fair price.

Nishi Chandra said no medicine or injections were used to fatten Lal Badsha; he was raised by natural means. He is bathed twice a day and a fan runs constantly. His diet includes grass, straw, crushed maize, various kinds of bran, mustard oil cake, rice bran, apples, bananas, oranges and other local feed. His food costs Tk 700 to Tk 800 a day.

Nishi Chandra Das's wife, Lipi Rani, a school teacher, told Jago News: "For one year and two months we raised Lal Badsha like our own child. Just as people protect their children, we looked after him. I fed him with my own hands, bathed him and cared for him. Now, thinking that we have to sell him, it feels like losing a child."

Nishi Chandra told Jago News: "The bull is calm. We have raised him much like a child. He weighs about 18 maunds, and we are asking Tk 7.5 lakh. If I get a fair price I will sell him from home; if he does not sell at home, I will have to take him to the market. My dream is to sell Lal Badsha at Eid and set up a large cattle farm."

Fulchhari upazila livestock officer Dr Zahirul Islam told Jago News that the upazila has more sacrificial animals ready than it needs. Among them, farmer Nishi Chandra has raised Lal Badsha, weighing more than 18 maunds, for sale at Eid. "We always advise farmers. We will give every kind of support so that Lal Badsha's owner gets a fair price," he said.

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