SANKHUWASABHA:Squirrel, a jungle animal rarely found at place other than the wild have been living at a house of one, Jit Bahadur Kesa, a resident of Num VDC-3 in Sankhuwasabha district for the past 20 months.

Kesa got hold of the squirrel when he had gone to a Litchi orchard some twenty months ago. “I trapped the squirrel in a zinc cage for a week,” Kesa said. The squirrel was fed with biscuits, chocolate and milk while it was caged. However, the squirrel did not return to its natural home and started living in the cage. “The squirrel, ‘Rajpanchhi’ in local language, comes out for a while for food and gets into the cage, “Kesa said.

The squirrel have not yet made friends with the family members. However, it loves to play with Kesa. “Several persons from government offices and non-government organisations came to see the squirrel and donated for the animal feed,”Kesa said. Kesa disclosed that he was thinking of searching another one of opposite sex and try breeding as the animal was getting popular among visitors. “As it is female, I have been searching for a male for the past three month but to no avail.” Kesa, however, is ignorant about the legal rights he has for holding the animal. Nevertheless, it is illegal to domesticate a wild animal or bird without permission, Gopal Prakash Bhattarari, chief Makalu Barun National Park said