Tales

Saathi the small panda

Rubin is a little boy who lives in Nepal. He loves to travel the land to discover the nature that surrounds him. He spends a lot of time admiring flowers, climbing trees and listening to the sounds of animals.

One day he was wandering around his village, he suddenly hears small groans at the bottom of a den. Rubin, who is not the type to be afraid, decides to go and see where this noise comes from.

It is then that in the cavity he discovers a small creature! It looks like a bear cub, but it’s red in colour, with a long tail and a white snout… maybe a fox? In any case, Rubin quickly understands that it is a very young animal and that he lost his mother.

He decides to take him home. His grandfather will tell him what to do!

But as soon as he arrived in the village, a man approached Rubin and asked him:

"This animal has value, I’ll buy you a good price if you agree?"

Suspicious Rubin says, "But what’s so special about him that you want to buy it from me?"

The man explains to him: Look at his beautiful fur with this color of fire. It’s highly sought after, its skin will be used to make a lot of things, like a hat, for example».

But for Rubin, there is no way to hurt his protégé. He politely refuses and goes home to his grandfather.

"Look, Grandpa, I found this cub: half fox, half bear!" 

Hello Rubin. Oh! But it’s not just any creature you found. It’s a red panda! But its mother must be worried. And it looks hungry.”

At the same time the little panda jumped out of Rubin’s arms to drink the milk that was intended for the house cat, which made the little boy and his grandfather laugh a lot.

Rubin explained then : "It was alone and groaning. I think its mother is missing. What do I have to do to help it?"

His grandfather had an idea: Let’s go to the other side of the mountain. There is a protected forest for red pandas. It’ll be safe there, and it’ll be able to eat a lot of foliage.”

Foliage? That’s what Rubin seems curious about. The old man tells him that this animal needs to eat a lot of bamboo once it becomes adult.

The next day, Rubin, his grandfather and the red panda set off on the other side of the mountain.

The red panda spends the whole way sleeping in the arms of the little boy. Rubin, however, admires the magnificent landscape.

When they arrive at the edge of the protected forest, a man welcomes them.

“Hi, I’m one of the guardians of this forest. I see you bring a very young red panda!”

Rubin says, "I found it all alone, near my village. I don’t want people killing it to take it skin!"

The ranger reassures him immediately: Here it will not risk anything. But it is a little young to be released. We’re going to have to keep it in a little enclosure until he grows up.”

Rubin is puzzled: "An enclosure? What is it?"

The guard then explains to him that an enclosure is a fenced area in which the animal can live safely.

Further on, there were indeed enclosures with several red pandas, probably wounded or too weak to be released into the wild. The little panda in Rubin’s arms was also watching with interest.

All together, they move towards the enclosures. Rubin is a bit sad because he will soon leave his red panda friend. The guard offers to give it a name, in memory of his rescue. After reflection, he decided to call it Saathi, which means friend in Nepalese.

Meanwhile Rubin’s grandfather notices a female red panda who follows them with a groan. He said, “Look, it looks like she recognizes him. Saathi must be her son.”

The guard said: It is quite possible, this female arrived yesterday, poachers captured her. But we confiscated them before they took her away.”

Rubin then enters the enclosure to drop Saathi who, full of impatience, jumps to the ground! It runs towards its mother. She greets it with great joy, she has got her cub back! Together, they feel, lick, play with happiness…

Happy to see them like this, Rubin and his grandfather greet the ranger before returning home.

A few weeks later, the guard comes to see Rubin to offer to release Saathi and its mother together. So they go to the forest with the red pandas.

When Rubin opens the cage, the two animals go all cheerful towards a bamboo grove! They begin to taste the leaves with greed. The young boy is full of satisfaction to have helped to save these two small pandas.

He decided that, when he's old enough, he too would become a guardian of the forest, the one that protect Saathi and its fellow.

Rubin now devotes all his time to bringing red pandas back to Freedom.

The end.

H. Allaire