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Threats
Threats to sloth bears include poaching for their gall bladders and other body parts, capture of bear cubs from the wild, retaliatory killing of bears for protection of crops, depletion of forests, disjointed forests leading to population fragmentation of sloth bears etc. and in addition, the capture of sloth bears for supply to the Kalandar community for itinerant street performances.
The frequent capture of this species in the wild and the continuance of the dancing bear tradition by the Kalandars is therefore an important threat to these bears in the wild.
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Sloth Bear Distribution |
Welfare Issues
The methods used by the Kalandars to train the bears are extremely cruel. A hot iron rod is used to pierce the sensitive muzzle of bear cubs. A thick rope is then inserted through this hole and out of the bear's nose by which the Kalandars force the bear into submission. This barbaric mutilation is performed without anesthetics. The wound never heals due to constant friction from the rope. The only way the bear can attempt to relieve the pain is to stand on its hind legs and perform whatever movements the trainer demands. The constant blows on its nose and paws force the bear to sway from side to side to the sound of a beating drum.
This unnatural act, which is performed under constant pain and torture by the animal for street shows of Kalandars has raised serious welfare issues. |
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Sloth bears are restricted to the Indian subcontinent, which includes India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh (IUCN). In India, sloth bears have a patchy distribution corresponding with the remaining forest cover. They are commonly found in Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Assam.
Based on the Sloth Bear Action Plan report of the IUCN about 121 Protected Areas including the National Parks and Sanctuaries across the country are considered to have sloth bears.
The new IUCN criterion for categorizing species by degree of threat relies on estimates of abundance (total numbers and rate of decline), distribution (total occupied area and degree of fragmentation) and probability of extinction (IUCN 1996).
Under this criterion, the sloth bear is listed as Vulnerable (IUCN 1996). The prospect for the survival of sloth bears in India is considered fair but due to continued habitat loss and degradation, sloth bear populations outside the protected areas might be decreasing.
The total world population of sloth bears is probably between 10,000 and 25,000. At the turn of the sanctuary, sloth bears were found throughout Sri Lanka, but due to wide scale conversion of upland forests to coffee and tea, they are now found only in the northern and eastern lowlands (Phillips 1984; Santiapillai and Santiapillai 1990; C. Santiapillai in litt. 1994). In Bangladesh, sloth bears may still exist in remnant mixed evergreen forests of the Chittagong and Sylhet regions however in the early 1970s they had been extirpated from the sal forest of central Bangladesh (Khan 1982, 1984; R. Khan in litt. to C. Servheen 1988). There is no data indicating occurrence of sloth bears in Myanmar. Continued habitat loss and degradation are the major threats in Nepal (Joshi et al. unpublished data) and Sri Lanka (Santiapillai and Santiapillai 1990).
[Source: Garshelis D.L, et-al, Sloth Bear Conservation Action Plan, 1998. In: Bears: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan. IUCN/SSC Bear and Polar Bear Specialist Groups. PP2250-240.]
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