A nearly extinct nilgai caught by villagers is recovering with care at the Kantivita border camp of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in Baliadangi upazila of Thakurgaon.

BGB members rescued the injured animal on Tuesday afternoon from the Shaula Dogachhi area of Baliadangi upazila.

The nilgai is being kept in a space fenced with bamboo on all sides. BGB members toss it ears of wheat, tender jackfruit leaves and chopped cabbage, which it chews intently, sometimes sitting and sometimes standing. Local people crowd round to watch.

Aflatun Nizami, company commander of the Kantivita border camp, said villagers attacked the rare animal when they spotted it, and it was injured while running to escape them. After catching it, the villagers tried to slaughter it. BGB members rescued the badly injured animal and brought it to the camp, where its four legs were tied to a tree with chains and rope; even so, it kept trying to break the chains and run.

Several vets came after the upazila veterinary surgeon was informed. They examined the nilgai, put 17 stitches in a cut on its neck and applied medicine to the wounds.

Nizami said the animal was no longer as sick as it had been when rescued. On Thursday it was released into the bamboo enclosure, and since then it has been eating, sometimes sitting and sometimes standing. It is being fed and cared for on a vet's advice.

A four-member medical team was formed on Thursday to check its condition: SM Shahadat Hossain, an official of Rangpur Zoo; BGB Lt Col Mohammad Ashraful Alam; Baliadangi Upazila Livestock Officer Nasirul Islam; and Upazila Livestock Extension Officer Niamul Shahadat.

Nasirul Islam said the nilgai, rescued in a critical state, was much better after three days of treatment, with the cuts on its neck and body healing fast. It will be kept and treated in the BGB camp enclosure for 15 days and released once it is fully fit. For now it is to be fed ears of wheat, tender jackfruit leaves and cabbage-type vegetables, but not grain feed, since it foraged in the wild.

Md Shahanshah Akanda, officer in charge of the Thakurgaon Social Forestry Nursery and Training Centre, said it had been decided to hand the nilgai to the Forest Department, but the BGB wanted to keep it in its own custody and nurse it back to health, and the department agreed. "Now I hear that once it recovers it will be kept at BGB headquarters in Pilkhana," he said.

Lt Col Shahidul Islam, commander of BGB's Thakurgaon 50 Battalion, said: "Let the nilgai recover first. Where it will be handed over is under discussion and has not been finalised."

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