A 20 day-old fawn of an antelope who got separated from his mother and had walked down with a flock of goats has been kept in the iron mesh set up in the sambhar enclosure in the Bareysanr range of the Palamau tiger reserve.

The fawn got separated from his mother in a meadow close to Netarhat a few days ago in a very piquant situation, said the deputy director south division of the tiger reserve Palamau, Mukesh Kumar.

He said the mother antelope has a habit to hide her fawn in shrubs and bushes before foraging into the forests and here too the mother antelope did the same with her male fawn.

He said the mother on completion of the forage gives a call that makes fawn hiding in the shrubs and bushes to come out and join the mother gleefully.

Here a strange episode took place which proved no less a tragedy as this fawn got separated from his mother by mistake.

A flock of goats had come for grazing at the place where this fawn was hidden by the mother, said Mukesh Kumar. The goats were of a local man Madan Kissan who lives at Bar Toli barely a kilometer away from Netarhat.

The bleating of goats resembles the call of the mother antelope and the fawn hearing the bleatings of the goats thought his mother was calling him and so this fawn joyfully joined the flock of the goats nonchalantly hoping to get his mother there in the passage but finally came down to the house of the goat owner Madan Kissan without finding his mother at all.

On counting of the goats Madan found this fawn of the antelope in his flock. He gave milk to the fawn and even slept with him for two nights, said Mukesh Kumar. His wife used to carry this fawn in her lap 'like her own child,' said Mukesh Kumar.

He said the goat owner Madan tried to unite this fawn with his mother.

He took the fawn to the same place twice where his goats were grazing on the day when he got separated from his mother.

The mother antelope was nowhere around when Madan had taken down the fawn on two successive days.

Madan Kissan informed the forest guard about the fawn which took him.

Mukesh Kumar said, “When our forest guard Sunil Oraon took the fawn in his hands there were tears rolling down the cheeks of Madan and his wife.”

He said the two day rearing of the fawn had made Madan and his wife profoundly attached to the fawn and when parting time came the couple were emotionally disturbed.

Mukesh Kumar said, “We respect Madan and his wife for the love, care and milk that they gave to this fawn.” He said we would facilitate this couple at some suitable time.

The fawn is given 100ml of cow milk thrice a day in his iron mesh in the sambhar enclosure where trackers keep a close eye on him.

Mahuadanr ranger Brinda Pandey said, “Our forest guard Sunil Oraon kept the fawn in his lap all through the 75km road journey in the official vehicle of the PTR from Netarhat to Bareysanr sambhar enclosure.”