A zookeeper in eastern India is hand-rearing a lion cub that was abandoned by its mother.

The cub, Barsha, was born on July 21, 2021, at Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar in Odisha state.

Her mother, however, never bonded with the tiny cub and zookeepers were forced to step in.

Now, Prasanta Gouda has assumed the role of mum and has been raising the big cat for six months.

For the first three months, Gouda had to feed the lioness milk every two hours, including at night.

All that hard work has paid off and now Barsha has grown enormously into a healthy young lion.

She even plays with her feline mother on regular visits to a neighbouring enclosure.

Abandoned by her mother, a female lion cub has found a single parent in a zoo-keeper, who has devoted his time to hand-rearing the former in eastern India's Odisha state.

Six-month-old Barsha, the lioness, was one of the three lion cubs born to Bijli on July 21, 2021. While she and another male lion cub survived, the third sibling was stillborn. Saddened by the death of her child, the mother lioness abandoned the other two.

Soon, the male cub also died due to poor health.

Officials at the Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar, where the lioness had given birth, grew worried, to the point that they tranquilize Bijli, eight hours after labor, to collect the colostrum and feed it to the newborns.

However, they could collect only 30 milliliters of colostrum from the mother. Insufficient quantity of milk led to the death of the male cub.

This is when Prasanta Gouda, animal-keeper at the zoo, stepped in and took charge. His experience of hand-rearing Kalpana, another lion cub, as well Rani besides a number of bear cubs proved useful. Since the lion cub was very weak, Prasanta had to constantly track her health and sleep in the temperature-controlled room where the feline had been kept.

For the next three months, the cub had to be fed milk every two hours, even during the night.

Lack of feline milk also forced the zoo authorities to import it from neighboring West Bengal. It was also challenging due to the Covid-19 pandemic. To help matters, Prasanta isolated himself and would rarely come in contact with anyone.

Visuals showed the doting foster parent feeding milk to the cub. Their bond has only grown stronger since, as Barsha, now visibly big and healthy, spends her time playing with her 'mother' Prasanta at a much larger enclosure.

She is also consuming minced chicken now and drinks milk three times a day. Authorities have decided to move Brasha permanently to the enclosure when she turns one.

The lioness could be saved due to expert and timely advice from doctors and care by Prasanta, who gave it his all. This has convinced zoo authorities that they can hand-rear big cats in the future.