Dancing ban not the end of woes for sloth bears: Experts

Bengaluru, Sep 11 (PTI) She may not be as 'cute' as a Panda, but five-year-old sloth bear Millie's antics are no less cute. She tumbles and bumbles in her enclosure at the Wildlife SOS-Bannerghatta Bear Rescue Centre and Rehabilitation Centre in Bengaluru, endearing herself to everyone who comes across her antics.

Millie, who celebrated her third 'rescue anniversary' at the enclosure on September 7, was one among the 60 rescued sloth bears at the Bannerghatta centre.

"Millie was lucky, she managed to escape the snare set for her and was spotted on time by Forest department officials in a rocky terrain in Kora Hubai of Tumakuru district, as she was limping around," Neel Banerjee of Wildlife SOS told PTI.

Bannerghatta Bear Rescue Centre and Rehabilitation Centre (BBRC) is a joint venture with Wildlife SOS, mostly taking care of the dancing bears rescued from Kalandars when the practice was banned almost 15 years ago, added Banerjee.

Dr Arun A Sha, Director, Research & Veterinary Operations at BBRC, said when the team finally managed to capture Millie, they figured out she was probably caught in a snare left by villagers to prevent animals from destroying crops and killing farm animals.

According to him, the snare was tightly wrapped around Mille's right forelimb leading to a gangrenous wound with bacterial infections.

"And thus, Millie became the first bear in India to have undergone skin grafting. We used fresh tilapia fish skin xenograft to heal the wound," said Dr Sha.

The other 60 bears at the centre were mostly rescued from tribal communities – most prominent among them are called Kalandars – from across India, including Karnataka. These communities have been capturing bears and making them perform dancing tricks for generations, said Dr Sha.

According to him, Wildlife SOS managed to set free nearly 700 animals, post 2009.

Banerjee said Wildlife SOS was one of the organisations that had canvassed for the abolition of this tradition, which eventually resulted in a ban of 'dancing bears' around 2009.

"The last officially recorded rescue happened in 2009," added Banerjee.

But as Millie's case proved, the ban was not the end of woes for the bears, said Sha.

The use of inhumane do-it-yourself tools is now proving fatal for wild animals, including bears. Banerjee said snares can be fashioned even from bike chains in less than three minutes.

"Just as all stakeholders worked together to free bears from the cruel "dancing" practice, we need to save wild animals from snare trapping and bait bombs. I have had cases where an elephant lost a limb because it unwittingly walked over a bait bomb," said Dr Sha. PTI JR SS