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The investigation
Representatives of One Voice and SOS Wildlife focused their investigation
on the state of Orissa, where poaching is a long-standing problem,
and around the village of Agra where the majority of bears and
their keepers are based.
Nothing would have been possible without the help of certain Kalandars
who were ultimately moved by the fate of these bears.
By infiltrating the poaching ring, investigators were able to
find out the exact place and date of capture as well as when and
where the cubs would be sold.
The Sambalpur region in the west of Orissa, considered a "tribal
zone", is a hotbed of poaching. It is also where the two
main bear traders live. Both head a network of poachers, spread
among different villages, who capture bears but also parrots,
snakes and even leopards. The bear cubs are sold for between 10,000
and 20,000 rupees (around €175 to €180), equivalent
to six months' average wage.
The arrests
In early January 2004, information was received that between 17
and 19 recently-captured bear cubs were about to be sold.
The animals had been taken to different villages, including five
to Korai, a small village near Agra and which appears to be the
hub of illegal trade in bears in India. More cubs were spotted
in other villages.
This information was passed on to the police and the Forest Department
who were able to arrest the poachers and confiscate the cubs.
Several raids were made on villages that our investigators had
identified. Nine people were arrested in all. They risk fines
and prison sentences of three to seven years.
The situation today
Currently there are some 1,200 dancing bears in India. They suffer
multiple mutilations during their captivity: brutally castrated
at the age of six months, their teeth are smashed at the age of
two years or younger.
Their claws are removed or cut to the quick. Sometimes their toes
are sliced. From two months and at regular intervals throughout
their life, a red-hot iron rod is used to burn a hole in the top
of their nose and a rope threaded through and out through the
bear's nostril. Constant friction from the rope means the wound
never heals. The rope is the instrument by which the bear is forced
into submission: tugging on the rope causes the bear such pain
it is forced to rise onto its hind legs and "dance".
Undernourished, forced to walk long distances between villages
where tourists stay, few bears survive beyond the age of eight
when in their natural habitat they live to 25 or 30.
The capture
The cubs, aged little more than ten days old, are poached from
the wild between December and March. Most often the mother bear
is killed in the process. Practically two-thirds of the cubs die.
Some may be eaten by the poachers, as was observed in January
2004.
The poachers also deal in illegal trade in birds. Thousands of
young parrots, so young they had yet to grow feathers, were seen
this year.
The sanctuary
The sanctuary, which opened in 2002, welcomed the first rescued
bear on December 26th and is now home to some fifty animals. The
sanctuary employs two full-time vets and has a clinic with X-ray
and surgery facilities where the bears can be treated. Many of
them have gone blind due to under-nourishment. Representatives
of One Voice, one of the sanctuary's partners, have made several
trips there, the last one in January 2004.
The anti-poaching unit
The unit is led by Kartick Satyanarayan, assisted by a lawyer,
Mr Narayan-Vashisht, who for many years defended wild animal traffickers
before a change of heart. His inside knowledge of the system is
a valuable asset.
We are already investigating new leads and expect further raids
to take place at end February. As from March, the unit will also
hold meetings with police and magistrates to inform them on wildlife
legislation. This initiative has the backing of the Indian authorities.
Under a new law passed in 2002, the Kalandars can hand over their
bears without fear of prosecution and benefit from a rehabilitation
package to help them find alternative employment, financed by
wildlife charities.
These moves and the Indian authorities' clear determination to
eradicate the capture and detention of bears is a ray of hope
that in a few years' time, dancing bears will have become a thing
of the past.
The rescued cubs
The five cubs rescued as a result of the first investigation were
taken to the sanctuary, though their chances of survival looked
slim. The only example to date of a cub being successfully rescued
has been at Amsterdam zoo.
The cubs live in a heated "den" in one of the vet's
rooms. They are kept in the dark (in the wild, they would not
leave their den until five months old). They are bottle-fed every
four hours and given vitamins. Although very weak when rescued,
they are showing signs of recovery.
The rescued adults
The adult bears that arrive at the sanctuary are physically and
mentally scarred by their experience. One of them, for example,
refuses to go in its den and will only sleep in a concrete tube.
Another whose toes had been sliced required months of treatment
to clean its worm-infested wounds. For other bears, their muzzle
has been so damaged by the rope that the bone has been worn away.
It takes months for these bears to show anything like normal behaviour.
The sloth bear
Listed under appendix I of CITES, these bears should be among
the most highly-protected animals on earth. It is illegal to kill,
capture or sell them. Found only on the Indian sub-continent,
there are thought to be just 6,000 in the wild today. In 1992
there were 10,000.
Around a hundred cubs are captured in India each year. In 2004
this figure is expected to fall for the first time, to around
35. Those that are not kept as dancing bears could finish up in
bear fights in Pakistan, or on Chinese bear farms where their
bile will be extracted.
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