Ex-Situ updates - Central Zoo Authority

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Sloth Bear in power fenced enclosures at Agra Bear Rescue Centre facility dancing bears, followed suit, creating the Bannerghatta Bear Rescue Centre at the Bannerghatta Biological Park. The Van Vihar Bear Rescue Centre was created at Bhopal, and finally the Purulia Bear Rescue Centre was set up in West Bengal. These four Sloth Bear rescue and rehabilitation centers in India are run by Wildlife SOS in collaboration with the respective state governments. Wildlife SOS received unremitting support and care from each state’s forest department. These centres were safe havens for the bears, which had been ill-treated by the Kalandars and had experienced brutality at their hands. Through an intensive process of engaging with the Kalandar community and staying with them in over 70 villages, a relationship of trust was built up between them and the founders of Wildlife SOS, and the Kalandars agreed to voluntarily hand over their bears to the forest department. Wildlife SOS was able to offer them seed funds to establish alternate livelihoods that would improve their quality of life and prevent them from exploiting wildlife. This rehabilitation of the community was a complex social challenge as the Kalandar tribe had indulged in bear dancing for generations and lacked the confidence that they could earn a livelihood successfully through other means. However it was imperative that the community be encouraged to move away from this illegal practice as it had only given them poverty, a 6 Photo Credit: Dr Brij Kshor Gupta lack of healthcare, a high incidence of endemic diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis, illiteracy caused by a lack of education, a lack of family planning, and a lack of proper housing. Wildlife SOS worked hard at rehabilitating the Kalandars along with the bears. The Wildlife SOS Kalandar Rehabilitation Project was started with cooperation and support from state forest departments and enabled the Kalandars to learn new skills and start alternative livelihoods with seed funds and training provided by Wildlife SOS after they had surrendered their Sloth Bears voluntarily. The Kalandars received training in driving, carpet weaving, welding, grinding and packaging spices, sewing and jewellery making. Cutting and polishing gems, setting up tea shops and vending vegetables, clothes and plastic goods were just some of the professions chosen by them. Today, more than 3000 Kalandar families have benefited from this programme. Empowerment of the Kalandar women through this programme, making them secondincome earners in a way, changed their position in the Kalandar household, giving them dignity and a larger say in family matters. Widows and abandoned women had some skills and incomes to fall back on, as Wildlife SOS microfunded small ventures chosen by them such a selling plastic goods, bangles and cosmetics, rearing poultry and stitching chappals, embroidering wedding sarees and cutting leather for cricket balls. The programme also ensured that all Kalandar children were educated by sponsoring their school fees, uniforms, shoes and satchels so that the children would find it easier to integrate with society. We can say with pride that some of those children are in college and pursuing computer courses, higher college studies in arts and even engineering in several states, and girl children are now being permitted to join schools. The forest departments and Wildlife SOS asked hundreds of Kalandars, when they surrendered their bears or when their bears were seized, about how they had procured their Sloth Bear cubs. There existed a supply chain with poachers, familiar with jungle ways and Sloth Bear behaviour, at one end. There were middlemen who would carry the cubs to underground markets and sell them to the Kalandars. Through this invaluable information, the police department, forest departments and Wildlife SOS began tracking underground routes, animal markets and the poachers themselves, those who stole the cubs from their mothers, often killing the mother bears, who had been selling them to the Kalandars for decades. Some of the biggest bear traders in India in Karnataka, Jharkhand and Odisha had worked with impunity, evading the law. Wildlife SOS established the anti-poaching Sloth Bear rescued from Kalandars in a transport cage Photo Credit: Dr Brij Kishor Gupta
unit called Forestwatch, which works in tandem with police and forest departments in several states across India. Over the last few years, this unit has facilitated the rescue and seizure of over 70 bear cubs from poachers. Very often, intelligence gathered by the Wildlife SOS anti-poaching unit also results in the uncovering of an illegal trade in marine animals, birds, reptiles, smaller wildlife, Tigers, Leopards, etc. The Sloth Bear rescue centres function as lifetime care facilities for Sloth Bears. They also function as training, education and awareness platforms where training programmes and talks are organsed for enforcement officers and school- and collegegoing students. Premier institutions such as the WII, IGNFA and FRI bring their trainees on field visits. Veterinary students from all over the world come to study veterinary procedures and management techniques at the centres. The Central Zoo Authority has assigned to Wildlife SOS for five years (beginning 31 March 2011) the responsibility of preparing and updating studbooks for all four bear species found in Indian zoos for the purpose of conservation breeding. Wildlife SOS will be publishing interpretative studbooks of all the species annually and will provide hard copies to each zoo where bears are housed. The Central Zoo Authority also assigned, in November 2011, to Wildlife SOS a two year study of the enclosure utilisation pattern of Sloth Bears and enrichment utilisation in nonconventional captivity at the Agra Bear Rescue Facility. Thus this collaboration between the NGO Wildlife SOS, the Government of India and state governments, which started off to implement the law to control wildlife crime and conserve Sloth Bears, has now become an ideal model for successful conservation and ended the brutal practice of “dancing bears”. The authors are founders of Wildlife SOS, New Delhi ZOO GETS VEHICLE TO RESCUE WILDLIFE Jaipur Zoo has recently acquired wildlife rescue vehicles that have been dedicated for public service. Two rescue vehicles have been customized to meet the requirements of rescuing wild animals. These vehicles are unique and have been built for the first time in Rajasthan. The vehicles have been equipped with life-saving drugs and essential medicines for rescue purposes. The vehicles are air conditioned and are fitted with a hydraulic system, ZOO NEWS a chain pulley cable system( to rescue wildlife from wells), a tranquilising gun, a Dragon light (up to 1 km range) cages, helmets, nets, etc. The total cost of the vehicles including customization is approximately rupees 40 lakhs. One vehicle will cater to the Jaipur region and another to the Jodhpur region. The vehicles were dedicated for public service by the Hon’ble Forest Minister, Government of Rajasthan, Ms. Beena Kak, in July 2012. “VAN MAHOTSAVA” AT TATA STEEL ZOOLOGICAL PARK, JAMSHEDPUR Implementation of Aichi Target – UN Decade of Biodiversity Tata Steel Zoological Park celebrated “Van Mohotsava” as part of its ongoing educational activities in the zoo campus during July–August 2012 so that visitors to the zoo were made aware of the benefits of such a programme. The focus of the programme was on women and child because together they form the centre of our society. This year, Van Mahotsav was kick started by the First Lady of Tata Steel, Mrs. Surekha Nerurkar. She was instrumental in planting of 15 saplings of medicinal plants inside the zoo campus. During the Van Mahotsava celebrations, a total of 57 saplings were planted inside the zoo campus, and this took place in collaboration with Lions Club Steel City, Marwari Mahila Samaj and Little Wonder School. During the celebrations, the zoo also celebrated Friendship Day by adopting the theme of befriending trees. A total of 142 children took an oath to protect trees. 7
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Ex-Situ updates - Central Zoo Authority

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