dehradun residents in a village in chamoli district are upset after they have been asked by the forest department to surrender a fawn deer that they adopted and tended to for a year and a halfthe fawn deer a himalayan goral was brought up by darshan lal and his wife uma devi in kewar village in narayanbagar block after they found it alone and scared in the woods one evening since then the deer named julie has often accompanied them to festivities in the village and visits to the neighbourhoodthe entire village loves her feeds her and treats her as one of their own the thought of parting with her is heartbreaking she is like a child to us said the couple in their sixties who live alone since their two sons moved to punjab for work a few years agothe couple was asked to hand over the animal to the forest department two weeks ago after they informed the officials about harbouring the deer in their house we had no idea they would separate us we just wanted to let them know they told us that the wildlife protection act does not allow keeping a deer as a pet lal told toi himalayan goral is listed as near threatened on the iucn red list because the population is declining significantlylal a former truck driver is also worried that the domesticated deer might find it hard to adapt to a life in the wild if the forest department decides to release it she can only be rehabilitated in a zoo she is not a wild animal he said mohan prasad sati a forest guard at badrinath forest division told toi the animal would be shifted to a safe and secure location arrangements are being made to put her in an environment which she would find easy to adapt to the couple can stay with her until then he saidlals neighbour balbir singh said julie is welcomed in all homes in the village and brings much cheer to everyone the news has saddened everyone why cant they let her live here he said