Women of this Indian community breastfeed deer alongside their own baby
\"These baby deers are my life and they're like my own children,\" says the woman.
The Bishnoi community resides in the western part of the Thar region of India. These people are the followers of Guru Jambeshwar and have been following his 29 principles since 15th century.
Eight of those 29 beliefs ask the community to protect and preserve all kinds of flora and fauna. And hence as a devotion to the nature, you will often see mothers of this group breastfeeding fawns.
The Bishnois are scattered in various regions of India like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan and animals are considered as an integral part of their family. Their belief is that causing damage to animals is similar as causing harm to oneself. These people are vegetarians as nature is sacred for them. Even though this community is of Hindu, they follow burial ritual when somebody dies because that doesn’t require them to burn trees and also burial enriches the soil.
The animals graze in the fields in Bishnoi areas without any fear. The community is against poaching. In 2013, Rajesh Bedi published a book named Rajasthan: Under the Desert Sky in which he featured Kiran Bishnoi breastfeeding a three-month-old fawn. Accroding to the book, Kiran has fended the dogs that killed fawn’s mother and rescued her. She named fawn as Aarti and breastfeeds her along with her own baby daughter. She did this till the animal was young enough to be released into nature.
"These baby deers are my life and they’re like my own children. I feed them milk and food and ensure they’re given proper care and attention in the house like all my family members. They are not orphans when they have us around, they have new mothers like me who offer them a mother’s feed for a healthy life,” Mangi Devi Bishnoi, 45 told Daily Mail.
"We do not see them as just animals. They are very much like a family member. We take care of everything they may need to live a healthy life. We keep them protected in our house so that dangerous animals like wild dogs do not harm them. If they’re injured we keep them safe in our house and treat them like our children. My parents have never differentiated between a baby deer and me, " says 24-year-old Ram Jeevan Bishnoi.
We are one family and it is in our religion to protect them. We have followed this way of living for over 550 years with a lot of love and affection. We are very protective of our animals, especially the babies. We are helping them. Feeding them is what they need. We are very proud of what we do,” added Ram Jeevan Bishnoi.