The lone sloth bear of Rajasthan's Sariska Tiger reserve – on whom the hope of the return of the species in the area was pinned – is feared to have fallen prey to poachers. This has been the cause for alarm in the forest reserves of Alwar which recently lost a tiger to illegal hunting.
Like the T-5, the male sloth bear has not been spotted for more than a year. In both cases, a carcass was not found, pointing to poaching rather than a natural death. After a poacher confessed to killing T-5, authorities are certain that the wild cat was skinned and dismembered, and it's body parts smuggled out of India into neighbouring China.
Coincidently on Monday, China eased its 25-year ban on trading tiger bones and rhinoceros horns. Its Cabinet announced that it would allow the sale of rhino and tiger products under "special circumstances" which include scientific research, sales of cultural relics, and "medical research or in healing".
By 2005, poachers had wiped Sariska clean of sloth bears. The insectivore bear is marked as 'Vulnerable' on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List (an inventory of the global conservation status of biological species).
A great opportunity arose in March 2013, when a lone male sloth strayed into a village near the Malarna forest check post that falls under the Rajgarh forest range of Sariska tiger reserve.
The six-year-old had wandered in from the adjoining Bharatpur district, and was relocated to Kalighati forest area. He settled in well and marked territory within the park, and was sighted regularly from 2013 to 2016.
"A factual report, along with a Sloth Bear Reintroduction Project, was forwarded to the Forest department in May 2013 regarding introducing a female bear into the park," a forest official told DNA. The final nod for bringing a mate was received in 2017, almost a year after the bear "vanished".
"At first no one attached any importance to his disappearance as it is difficult to follow the animal in this terrain," says a forest officer. "However, it soon became evident that something was not right. There were no pugmarks, and considering the availability of food, shelter and water in the area, it is unlikely that the bear had moved away."
All signs pointed to poaching as the bear went missing around the time when a string of leopards were killed by snares. "Death by natural causes stood negated since forest rangers did not find a carcass," a former forest official posted in Sariska said. "Also, the bear was just nine years of age; they are known to live to 14 to 15 years."
The re-entry of poachers in Sariska poses a threat to the monumental exercise undertaken to translocate tigers after 2005. Ten tigers were brought in from Ranthambore, of which three have died over the years. Their numbers now stand at 15 adults and two cubs.
To kill a bear
- The Sloth bear is hunted for sport.
- Its pelt is sold for ornamentation
- Flesh is consumed as an aphrodisiac in China and Africa.
- Bones and claws are are used for medicinal purposes.
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