Arunachal Pradesh: Five Asiatic black bear cubs are being taken for walks daily by a human surrogate mother in the deep jungles of Khari Pong in Arunachal Pradesh as part of a plan to release them in the wild. The cubs were rescued from different people in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, who kept them as pets but later surrendered them to the forest department.

‘The cubs would be radio-collared for post-release monitoring when they show signs of independence,’ said Dr. N.V.K. Ashraf, director of Wildlife Trust of India’s (WTI) wild rescue programme. The Walk the Bear programme helps the orphaned cubs to acclimatise themselves to wilderness, where the keeper helps them learn different life skills to survive in the wild. The programme to release rescued bear cubs back to the wild has been initiated by conservation organisations WTI and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) with support from the forest department.

‘A number of bear cubs get orphaned when people kill their mother and catch the cubs for keeping them as pet animals in their homes,’ Ashraf said. Two other bear cubs were rehabilitated earlier.

‘The cubs are being monitored through the radio-collars fitted on their necks,’ Tamo Dada, the biologist of WTI who supervises the project, said. Bears that can’t be released are kept at the Centre for Bear Rehabilitation and Conservation (CBRC) in Pakke, about 200 km from the state capital Itanagar, set up by WTI and IFAW.

Bears, which are old or mutilated, are brought to the centre till a new home is found, since they may not survive if they are released in the wild,’ Ashraf said. Asiatic black bears are protected by the Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972, the highest protection given to wild animals in the country.