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Forest officials rescue wild bear

Staff Reporter

It is with master awaiting rehabilitation

BERHAMPUR: Forest officials rescued a grown bear from a person named Trinath Behera living near Kukudakhandi in Ganjam district on Tuesday.

But they had to return the bear to Behera to keep it till alternative arrangements were made for its rehabilitation. Behera claims he had found it as a lost cub near his village a few years ago. As the bear has grown as a pet in his family the forest officials had a hard time to get it from his home to Berhampur.

The bear showed so much attraction towards its master that it was hard for them to keep it restrained at the Berhampur forest range office. Moreover they also did not want a grown wild bear in an enraged state remain in a crowded city area. Having no other way out they had to return the bear to his master for the time being.

According to Berhampur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), S.N.Mohapatra bears are sensitive animals and once they grow up in human habitat it takes much effort to get them adapt to their natural habitat. They have already asked the authorities of the Nandankanan zoological park to make arrangements for to get the bear transported to Nandankanan. A team from Nandankanan with veterinary experts would be reaching soon to take charge of the bear. Till then it would remain with Behera.

Under Section 39 of the Wild Life Act keeping a bear which is a ‘Schedule 1’ animal is a crime. But most people do not know this and try to domesticate wild animal cubs destroying their capability to live in the wild. Wild life activists of the State had objected to Behera keeping this wild bear at his home. Although it was domesticated it was always kept chained.

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