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Back to their natural habitat

A sloth bear cub.

BHUBANESWAR: The government is giving a “serious” thought to an innovative project submitted by the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) to release cub sloth bears being confiscated from wildlife traders into deep forests.

A preliminary discussion on the execution of the project took place between Chief Wildlife Warden Bijay Ketan Patnaik and a delegation of the WTI led by its vice-chairman Ashok Kumar here recently.

“On the face it, the WTI project appears to be an interesting one. But, we are examining its detail. A final decision will be taken at a higher level,” Mr. Patnaik told The Hindu here.

The project needs consent of the Forest Department, the Ministry of Environment and Forest and the Central Zoo Authority for turning ‘domesticated’ or ‘orphaned’ cub bears to wild again.

The WTI had already released two cubs into the forest in Arunachal Pradesh after acclimatising the rescued cubs with nature.

Making cubs familiar with nature is a tedious job. As per the practice, a rehabilitation house, which is a temporary one, is erected near a forest where the orphaned cub bear is kept under direct supervision of a caretaker. The baby sloth bear will be left to learn eating ants and termites slowly by breaking into termite mounds with its claws on its own. Everyday, the caretaker, wrapped in mask, will take the cub for a stroll to the forest to enable the animal to get acquainted with nature. The exercise will continue for two years after which a radio collar will be fitted to the neck of the cub. During this period, the cub will be allowed to go into the forest without the help of the keeper. Only when experts feel that the infant is getting attracted to nature and is detached with its keeper, will the final release take place.

“We have got to know that the maximum number of cub bears are smuggled out from Orissa and Jharkhand to northern Indian States like Uttar Pradesh. We have good success in making rescued cubs wild again in Arunachal Pradesh,” Mr. Kumar said.

If the project proposal gets through administrative hurdles, for the first time sloth bears would be converted into wild in Orissa. Sources in the Forest Department said that some 20 cubs were annually smuggled out from Orissa forests every year.

Madari, who trains the bears from the infant stage, says these animals are used to eke out a livelihood. Moreover, it is noticed that the bear-animal conflict erupts at places where baby bears are regularly snatched from the lap of the mother.

Subsequently, tribals, who collect non-timber forest produces from the forest, face attacks from hostile mothers. Last month, an infant bear, whose eyes were yet to open, was confiscated from a trader near Rairakhol in Sambalpur district. Sources in the Forest Department said the cub could be rehabilitated in Satkoshia Sanctuary.

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