By Azera Rahman, IANS,
Agra : “Rani was ours”, says Aashiq Miyan, fondly looking at the sloth bear. But there is no remorse in the voice of this former ‘kalandar’ or bear entertainer whose family once roamed the dusty roads of Rajasthan making the animal “dance” to earn a living.
With the enforcement of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, the livelihood of the kalandar community — a nomadic gypsy tribe — was rendered illegal.
To rehabilitate the rescued bears, Wildlife SOS, an animal welfare organisation, along with government agencies, opened the first bear rescue centre near Agra in 2002. And the first occupant of the Agra Bear Rescue Facility (ABRF) was Rani.
Malnourished, injured and stressed — like most other dancing bears — she was given medical treatment, food and, most importantly, freedom from the rope tied around her nose and the compulsion to move within the 2×2 feet radii it was confined to.
But simply rescuing the bears would not have ended this cruel trade. So the kalandars were roped in too.
“It’s very easy to demonise the kalandars. But the community comes from an impoverished background with no access to health facilities and education. So we have to rehabilitate the kalandars too,” Wildlife SOS India co-founder Geeta Seshamani said.
Thus, a kalandar rehabilitation programme was also started under which a package of Rs.50,000 is given to the owner upon peaceful surrendering of a bear.
But what is even more heartening is that a large of number of kalandar boys, whose fathers were once in the trade, are now working in the facility, looking after the bears and campaigning against the practice.
“It was thanks to Rani that our kitchen fire kept burning. We would make her entertain the crowd and earn about Rs.600 per day,” Aashiq, 29, told IANS.
“But we knew it was unlawful. There were campaigns in our village and one day my father surrendered Rani and took a job at ABRF,” he added.
Aashiq too works at the centre which houses 270 sloth bears. He is a kitchen chef.
“I knew the bear’s eating habits; so this was an apt job for me. I was taught the dietary supplements they require. We feed them thrice a day,” he said.
Mohammad Rizwan is another kalandar boy at the facility.
“We are from Uttar Pradesh, but I have grown up in West Bengal. Every 10 days our community, which constitute about 10-15 families, would move from one village to another,” Rizwan told IANS.
“With the bear, our daily income was around Rs.500. With my brothers in petty businesses, it’s around the same now. But we are not chased by the law and have a stable life,” he added. The kalandar boys earn Rs.6,000-7,000 per month at the centre.
According to Wildlife SOS India founder Kartick Satyanarayan, around 40 percent of its staff is from the kalandar community. However, he says it’s not easy bringing them to the mainstream because they are “used to the begging culture”.
“We have to be patient and give them confidence. We also provide education to the community’s children which is important to uproot any malpractice,” Satyanarayan said.
Mohammad Hussain, another bearkeeper of the community, says the motivation to work comes when they realise the animal’s pain.
A cub, barely a month old, is stolen from its mother by the poacher and is bundled in a gunny sack. Traumatised and ill fed, it’s sold to a kalandar. Many don’t survive the ordeal and the ones that do have their delicate snouts pierced by a hot iron rod and a rope being pulled through.
Their canines and claws are broken and they are tied by a rope. So much is the stress that once rescued, a bear has to be quarantined for three months, its wounds are tended to, surgeries are performed and ample food is given.
“To a bear, man stands for cruelty. By the time he is rescued, he loses his animal instincts; so it’s not wise to leave them in the wild,” said S. Ilairaja, a veterinary doctor at ABRF.
With the tables turned, a number of kalandar boys also work as informers for the organisation, keeping them posted on any poaching activity.
“We have rescued around 550 dancing bears from across India. The last known dancing bear, Raju, was rescued in 2009. There have been no reports of dancing bears since then. However, we suspect there are some in Nepal and there may be attempts to bring them in through the India-Nepal border,” Satyanarayan said.
(Azera Rahman can be contacted at [email protected])