India to host first-ever international conference on bears

[Mrudul Godbole]

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India to host first international conference on Bears

India will host its first international Conference on Bear Research and Management in Delhi next week. The conference is normally held every 18 months. It had its last two editions in Ottawa in Canada and Georgia in USA.

The five-day conference starts Nov 26 and will be hosted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in collaboration with three wildlife conservation NGOs, Wildlife Institute of India and the Central Zoo Authority. A National Bear Conservation and Welfare Action Plan will be launched at the conference.

The national plan is a compilation of 26 state welfare action plans. "The national bear action plan outlines directions for conservation of bears in the country. Whether or not it becomes a standalone project depends on the ministry," says Rahul Kaul, chief ecologist, Wildlife Trust of India, one of the NGOs involved in formulating the bear conservation plan.

There will be about 170 paper presentations by national and international bear experts from 35 countries in the conference on themes ranging from bear-human interactions and bear rescue and habilitation. A pre-conference workshop will look at developing a "conflict mitigation toolkit" in Srinagar.

There are currently four species of bears in the country. Out of these, black bears are on the endangered list of the IUCN. Bears are poached for body parts in north and central India. Bear bile is a constituent of traditional medicine. In the north-east, they are also poached for meat.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I hope that this conference is widely covered by our media so that some amount of knowledge can trickle in and awareness is built up among the common man. Hopefully this conference will lead to focus on reducing the Human-Bear conflict in various parts of the country.

Collection of NTFP (Non timber forest produce) like amla, crusted apple and other fruits, mahua etc depletes the food supply. As a result the bears starve.

Most of the revolutions have happened been triggered by the paucity of food. As they say, A Hungry Man is an Angry Man. Some of our politicians and members of civil society even justify the terrorism by the maoists as they are deprived. Fortunately, unlike people, a Hungry Wild animal is not an Angry. They just try to get their minimum food. I hope we can leave our forests inviolate so that the forests can take care of the needs of our wildlife.
Sabyasachi