PESHAWAR: Naeem Iftikhar Dar, a passionate conservationist and in-charge Wildlife & Fisheries Department Azad Jammu and Kashmir looks complacent while sharing a success story of his department in rescuing and protecting two orphaned black bear cubs from poaching and bloody sport of dog fighting.
The bear cubs were found a year ago in Neelum Valley with their eyes closed because of being only a few days old and very weak. The AJK Wildlife Department on receiving reports about unattended cubs, reached the site, rescued and started their brought up in captivity.
Dar’s contentment, however, now started converting into a concern when he pondered over the impending challenge of rehabilitating these cubs which after the passage of one year in captivity were matured to the age appropriate for releasing them in the wild to enable them to live the rest of their life in natural habitat. “We appropriately tackled the initial challenge of rescuing cubs and successfully grew them in captivity, but now releasing them in natural habitat has become a matter of concern for us,” said Naeem Dar.
Due to the lack of any proper facility, releasing tamed animals into their natural habitat was a daunting task for conservationists. Since these bear cubs are reared by the wildlife staff who fed them milk, fruits, and bread.
Now the bears have started considering human beings as friends and become totally dependent on them in fulfilling their food requirement. “If we release these bears in natural forest, they will go close to the populated area for their need of food and might be shot by locals in self-defense assuming them as attacking beasts,” Naeem added.
Dar said there was hardly any facility at public or private level for rehabilitation of such kind of wild animals who come in close contact with humans after becoming injured, ill or being left unattended.
Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus) is one of the vulnerable species classified by IUCN Red List and is faced with the threats of illegal hunting for body parts, baiting and habitat loss due to logging.
In southeast Asia region, bears are also used as a source of earning by forcing them to perform a dance in public gatherings. The dancing practice involves the cruel torturing of the bear by removing nails and teeth for safety purposes. Similarly, bets are also made over fights of these bears with dogs with a tightened captive bear is left at the mercy of five to six dogs.
However, effective legislation and strict implementation has also made it impossible for performers to roam freely in any part of the country along with captive bear to earn money by forcing the animal to dance in public. “Releasing of these bear cubs into the natural habitat is like pushing them into the face of death,” said Waseem Ahmad Khan, Chairman, Pakistan Wildlife Foundation. “I would suggest constructing a huge enclosure within a forest area and release these bears to live in”, he added.
Waseem also pointed another problem that on maturity bear cubs will become aggressive in behavior for seeking mating. Bears are among very few wild species like a wolf which avoid inbreeding and leave their family on maturity to search for other mates. “Due to lack of resources, we should not keep these bear cubs in captivity for the rest of their life and give them a chance to live in natural environment,” said Dr. Fakhar-i-Abbass, Chief Executive Bear Sanctuary at Balkasar in Punjab province providing protection to bears rescued from performers and dog fights.
Dr Fakhar proposed Pir Hasimar Forest in Kashmir as a suitable site for releasing these cubs in the wilderness. Pir Hasimar is a very isolated area and there are few spots where around 30 kilometers there is no human population. He also disagreed with the proposal of releasing these bears at Bear Centre in Balkasar, saying they deserve a free life. “The sanctuary is for handicapped animals whose teeth and nails are broken by their captors”, he went on to say. He demanded setting up rehabilitation centers at provincial levels for all kinds of wild animals and not for any specific species. “Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre is essential for ensuring proper conservation of wild species, but unfortunately, we lack this the facility,” said Dr Mumtaz Malik, a seasoned conservationist who led Wildlife Department in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for around three decades.
Malik suggested shifting these bear cubs to a big enclosure spreading over an area of one acre (43560 square feet) at Lalazar in the Galliyat region of the Himalayan mountain range. He said the location of theLalazar wildlife sanctuary is also climatically very suitable for black bears and can provide them wilderness within the cage because of being built in thick forest. “From experts point of view, these cubs have become more humanized and it would be much difficult to rehabilitate them in natural habitat,” comments Rina Saeed, an environmental journalist who is currently chairing Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB).
“I have sent a team of IWMB who got training from Al Ma Wa Bear Sanctuary in Jordan to exchange expertise with AJK Wildlife for the care of these cubs,” Rina said. She said that presently these cubs can be kept in the same facility and she would try to get some funds from the government’s ongoing flagship `Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Program’ for setting up a proper settlement for them.
Rina said another two months old bear cub, named as Dabu, rescued from Lahore in May, 2021 is kept at Marghalla National Park for taking care. She also shared that a state of the art Conservation and Rehabilitation Centre is going to be set up at Islamabad zoo in a couple of years that would help cope with the challenge of rehabilitation of captive wildlife.
Dr. Mumtaz Malik shared good news that Global Environment Facility, an international organization working to tackle the planet’s most pressing environmental problems is in the process of launching a project titled as `Combating Poaching and Illegal Wildlife Trade in Pakistan’.
The project also included a proponent of establishing Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre in the country, he added.
