Just about 1,000 left, race on to save endangered Himalayan brown bear

Aditi Tandon

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New Delhi, July 27

A year after a Himalayan brown bear was caught ravaging graveyards in Kashmir’s Handwara, the Jammu and Kashmir Wildlife Department has entered into a collaboration with Wildlife SOS, a leading nature conservation agency, to assess the fast depleting habitat of this critically endangered mammal.

The world has about 1,000 brown bears with half of them estimated in India. The project involves tagging bears with GPS radio collars to evaluate the habitat, use patterns, food hunting behaviour and identification of factors leading to a growing human-brown bear conflict in the Valley.

Otherwise rarely seen due to habitations at heights of around 2,500 metre, brown bears have been increasingly sighted in Sonmarg, Kupwara, Dras and Pahalgam in Kashmir. The Sonmarg region is a particular refuge for brown bear habitats and unplanned disposal and treatment of waste constitutes a threat to the animal’s habitat and food hunting behaviour.

The GPS radio collar plan follows a Wildlife SOS field study which found that 75 per cent of the diet of these bears who frequent human-made garbage dumps includes plastic carry bags, chocolate wrappers and organic food waste, including leftover biryani.

Swaminathan S, senior biologist, Wildlife SOS, said the field team had used radio collars which provided information about the movement of brown bears using a satellite tracking system. “These animals can be tracked on foot using very high frequency (VHF) antennae in the field. The GPS and real-time monitoring of these collared bears is still on and the results will be compiled after the completion of the first year,” he said.

The Himalayan brown bear is one of the largest carnivore species in India with a restricted distribution in the alpine meadows of the Himalayas. Very little is known about its ecology and behaviour in India. With improper waste disposal by humans, the bears have lately been lazy hunting, resulting in changes in foraging patterns and rising human-animal conflicts.

Wildlife SOS experts say the population of brown bears in Kashmir is now severely affected and fragmented in several parts due to tourism, construction activities, livestock grazing, agriculture, settlements, highways, railroad, tunnelling and poaching.

Rashid Y Naqash, Regional Wildlife Warden, J&K Wildlife Protection Department, said, “The department has played its part in launching the project and the first phase is already over. We want to see the difference between bears that are socialised in the Thajwas landscape with those that are completely wild, without any human imprint.”

Baltal Thajwas Wildlife Sanctuary, Sonmarg, Sarbal and Laxpathri villages are major brown bear habitats and preferred tourist spots.

Experts say normal food of brown bears is insects, crustaceans, domestic livestock and young grass. The 2023 incident of a brown bear ravaging graveyards in Handwara’s Rajwara area had sounded alarm bells. Brown bears feature in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List as critically endangered.

Aaliya Mir, programme head, J&, Wildlife SOS, said, “The animal range use enables us to understand the habitat they use and corridors and to know the areas which overlap with human habitation. Thus, ranging studies are essential to understand the fundamental ecology of the species and implement better conservation practices.”