Dancing Bears Rescued From 'Deeply Concerning' Trade

Four sloth bears have been rescued from the dancing bear trade, which appears to be resurging in some areas of Asia.

The Wildlife Trust of India reported that India's Department of Environment, Forest & Climate Change recently seized the bears from a village near the border of Jharkhand and Bihar. With the rescue of these four bears and other recent seizures, officials are concerned the practice is experiencing an uptick.

Sloth bears are a protected species under the Wildlife Protection Act, but they are still sometimes poached and captured to be dancing bears. Dancing bears link back to ancient traditions that used to be widespread across India, Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Pakistan. The Indian government outlawed them in 1972.

Dancing bears are often tied to a rope and forced to stand on their back legs during performances. The bears are usually taken from the wild as cubs, so that they are raised to dance.

"This sudden resurfacing of cases involving the poaching of sloth bear cubs from the wild and their training for performances is deeply concerning. Our team has found that traders from villages in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are scouting these potential trade areas and placing their 'demand' for bear cubs in the local communities. Stopping these instigators is the major challenge to sloth bear conservation today," Jose Louies, the chief of Enforcement at the Wildlife Trust of India, said in a statement.

The Wildlife Trust of India received multiple reports about the location of these "Kalandars," which are members of the bear dancing community.

They initiated an operation to rescue the bears, and when they arrived, found three males and one female. Their muzzles had been pierced and their claws and teeth were broken, the trust reported, indicating the animals had been kept in cruel conditions.

Officials arrested seven suspects. The rescued bears have now been sent to Rajgir Zoo in Rajgir, Bihar.

Over the past two years there have been five cases of dancing bear rescues.

Efforts to eradicate the practice in India began in 2005 by the Wildlife Trust of India along with the U.K.-based World Society for Protection of Animals (WSPA) and the state forest department. By 2012, they had succeeded in making it nearly non-existent in the country, but recent cases suggest it is emerging once again.

In January, three sloth bears were rescued in Bhagalpur, Bihar. Shortly after that, a cub was also seized in Godda, Jharkhand. Any harm to the species is concerning as it is listed as vulnerable due to a decreasing population caused by habitat degradation and poaching.

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