The month-old pair of sloth bear cubs clings to their injured mother whenever they hear a human talk.
The cubs went through the trauma of a night and day-long separation from their mother who was brutally beaten up by villagers on the outskirts of Tumkur.
The trouble for sloth bear family began on the morning of January 31 when 55-year-old Basavaiah confronted the mother bear along with her two cubs outside his village in Gubbi taluk. The bear attacked Basavaiah and punched him throwing him unconscious. The villagers, who were alerted by Basavaiah’s screams took away the cubs and started pelting stones at the mother bear and beat it with sticks when she tried to snatch away her cubs from the villagers.
The cubs were kept inside a house and next day they were taken to the Range Forest Officer’s office in Gubbi to protest. It was the team from Bannerghatta Zoo which rescued the cubs and later the mother. All the three bears are now under Intensive Care Unit at Bear Safari and the mother bear is expected to go under surgery for her mouth injuries.
“Both cubs and mother have been traumatised due to rude public behavior. The forest officials were sure that either cubs or mother would have been killed by the villagers. Luckily the forest officials took the possession of cubs and mother bear came out of the forest when we placed cubs near the boundary. We have now kept the bear in isolation and minimum human interaction is maintained,” said Dr Arun Shah, a wildlife veterinarian.
The fate of Basavaiah, who lies in a hospital bed in Victoria, is not very different. According to Medical Superintendent of Victoria Hospital Dr Mallikarjun, the victim was unable to talk till Wednesday and he is now being treated at plastic surgery section of the hospital. “In fact we have received another bear attack case from Pavagada in Tumkur District and both the victims are out of danger,” Dr Mallikarjun said.
Conservationists demand that the forest patches around Tumkur needs protection since there are good sloth bear and leopard populations out there.
