Bears on prowl in the city!

It was scary to see Himalayan black bears in various central areas of Srinagar city recently. These bears fearlessly strolled on roads, scaled walls and even swam in a lake as if on a city tour!

These bears even reached the premises of prestigious institutions like University of Kashmir and Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura. These wild animals gave sleepless nights to students, teachers, medicos, and inhabitants of adjoining localities. In a lighter vein, these bears seemed to take a leaf from classic American adventure comedy Baby’s Day Out in which an abducted baby escapes in dramatic ways. These bears gave some tough time to Wildlife authorities. After hectic efforts, one of the bears was caught at Lal Bazar locality on Saturday night while others are still on the run.

Humour apart, this is a serious issue when wild animals leave their natural habitat and infiltrate into human habitations! This kind of human-animal conflict can lead to serious collateral damage. There has been a rise in incidents when wild animals especially bears and leopards enter villages, but sighting bears in Srinagar’s heavily populated area is alarming.

Wildlife authorities maintain that Hazratbal and adjoining zones have become a conducive habitat for bears due to unattended land patches, thick bushes, and abundant food waste generated by restaurants and food outlets. They also blame rising stray dog populations as easy food sources that attract wild animals into inhabited areas.

But the question is what really compels bears to leave their habitat in Dachigam National Park and other forests? Scientific studies have shown that behavior of bears has drastically changed, shortening their hibernation period in winter. Researchers have spotted bears active in winters during which they used to hibernate in caves to survive in harsh weather conditions. Due to the ban on poaching, the population of bears has increased manifold in Kashmir even though the species is classified as “Vulnerable” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list.

Nearly 50 bears have been captured in various areas of Kashmir in November alone. A bear mauled a man and woman at Andoo-Shangus village in Anantnag district on November 23. On the same day another bear was spotted at Soaf village, nearly 15 kilometers away. Wildlife authorities captured both the bears.

On November 28, another bear was captured at Sagam village of Kokernag. Few hours later, another bear was captured at Haptnad village. In the Anantnag-Kulgam Wildlife Range alone the total number of black bears captured, rescued and released back into their natural habitat this month is 10 from the Brengi-Kokernag range and four from the Lidder range. In Shopian-Pulwama Wildlife Range, eight black and brown bears were captured.

Similarly 18 bears have been captured in the last month in the three North Kashmir’s Kupwara, Bandipora and Baramulla districts. In Central Kashmir’s Srinagar, Ganderbal, and Khrew areas six black bears have been captured and six were given safe passage to nearby forests last month. This depicts the large-scale of bear intrusion into human habitations.

Experts point out that delay in snowfall and less food availability in forests could have delayed hibernation of bears. While some blame extensive disturbances in forests due to haphazard constructions and vehicular movements for disturbing the normal cycle of bears.

It is clear that nothing can stop movement of bears into human habitations. One of the classic examples is the Royal Springs Golf Course (RSGC) on the banks of Dal Lake. Despite all measures, bears enter the golf course giving a scare to golfers. Are the bears really infiltrating the golf course? No way! Actually the Royal Springs Golf Course was the habitat of wild animals including bears. RSGC was carved out of the Salim Ali National Park popularly known as City Forest National Park. The park on the foothills of Zabarwan mountain was home to several wildlife species including critically endangered Hangul, Black Bears, Leopards besides 70 species of birds. However, in 1998, the then government decided to convert the National Park into a golf course. In the process, the wild animals were displaced and are now returning to reclaim their bastion!

To prevent entry of bears and other wild animals into RSGC, several measures including electric fencing were undertaken. However, bears cross all barriers and continue to infiltrate into the golf course which was their erstwhile habitat! Where will the bears go when we have closed their traditional corridors in the upper reaches of Kashmir. Conversion of paddy fields into orchards attracts bears to eat fresh fruits.

Lack of solid waste management adds to their intrusion. It is shocking that 75 percent of the diet of bears who frequent human garbage dumps included plastic, chocolates and organic food waste. During a study by Wildlife SOS, bears were tagged with GPS radio-collars to know their habitat, foraging behaviour, its availability and identify specific causative factors leading to human brown-bear conflicts in famous tourist resort Sonamarg.

In the last two decades, reportedly 250 people were killed and over 3000 were injured in human-animal conflicts in J&K. Let’s end this man-made conflict. Leopards and bears have been attacking mostly kids and elderly persons due to their fragility. If we don’t intrude into the territory of wild animals, they too won’t enter ours. We shouldn’t treat wild animals as aliens or beasts. They are part of our eco-system and play an important role to maintain ecological balance on this planet. Let’s give wild animals their due space to live and flourish.

Arif Shafi Wani is Executive Editor, Greater Kashmir