Bear cubs wait for freedom in dingy cells

Four orphaned bear cubs (the fifth one was allegedly gunned down by Naxals) were locked up in a dark and dingy 11×10 feet room inside the Rajgir Deer Park under the most pathetic conditions. Crammed into the small room, the bear cubs were seen panting for fresh air with their muzzle stuck on the small window. The cubs are confined in this condition for the past nine months. The cubs are of sloth bears, an endangered species listed as highly protected under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

Two other cubs, rescued separately, were also found locked in a similar room. Three more adult bears confiscated from Kalandars were found locked in small rooms of an abandoned forest range office. “Initially, we used to take them out for a walk inside the park, but stopped after the cubs developed teeth. It is dangerous. They could attack us,” said Vijay Kumar, one of the so-called trainers.

The ‘Walk the Bear’ initiative for introducing confiscated cubs to the wild environs is a brainchild of WTI, a non-governmental organisation. The project is being undertaken along with WTI’s UK-based international funding partner, WSPA and the Bihar Forest department.

Even as the bears continue to live in conditions worse than what the Kalandars would have kept them, WTI’s website ( wildlifetrustofindia.org) paints a rosy picture about them. A news item with the headline, Five Sloth Bear Cubs Walk Back to Wilderness with beautiful pictures of the cubs says the cubs “now spend most of their time in the jungle and spend even nights in small dens built on trees or in freshly dug holes in the ground, which make it difficult for their keepers to get them back to their night shelters”. The news says the two trainers “are animal keepers who are acting as surrogate mothers, helping these cubs learn life-skills to survive in the wild”. The reality about the two persons — Vijay and Nathun — is that they are casual staffs of the Forest Department, and have received no training in handling bears. “Zoo officials from Patna just taught us how to feed them. Apart from that we know nothing,” said Vijay.

While repeated efforts to contact WTI authorities failed, Bihar’s Chief Wildlife Warden B N Jha minced no words in stating that the future of the bears was uncertain. “The bears have been kept at Rajgir. But future plans about them are still unclear.”