KOZHIKODE: To Forest Department personnel, nine-year-old Unni presented a sight at once painful and curious at the Kattunayaka colony, Aalumoola near Nadavayal, in Wayanad on Thursday. Broken and sobbing, the tribal boy remained inconsolable even as Forest Department driver Manuel George, beat officer K K Jojish and watcher Shivan did their best to comfort him. The reason? The forest staff took away his pet, a wild boar, Chiku, which had been living with him for a year.
“It was painful to separate the wild boar from the boy. Unni was so close to the animal that both used to sleep under a blanket,” Manuel said. Unable to pacify the boy, the forest team had a discussion with Chethalayam Range forest officer T Sasikumaran and went up to Unni with a promise that, in lieu of Chiku, they would be giving him two rabbit kittens.
The forest personnel caught the wild boar from the colony on Tuesday after residents raised several complaints of the animal destroying crops. Though the forest team caught and tied up the wild boar, it broke free and ran away. A puzzled team had to depend on Unni to call up the animal.“His bonding with the animal is amazing. At his call, the wild boar appeared out of the blue. We caught it again and released it in the Pathiri reserve forest,” Manuel said.
The animal weighing 40kg was found by Unni a year ago. “The boar revealed its instincts over the past few months by raiding crops. We had no other way but to shift it to the forest. The rabbit kittens will be delivered to the boy on Friday itself,” said the Chethalayam Range officer.Unni is the son of Chandran, of the Kattunayaka colony.