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Activists thought they’d rescued India’s last dancing bear. Sadly, they were mistaken
- India outlawed forcing bears to dance for entertainment in 1972, with animal-rights groups heralding the rescue of the last one in captivity in 2009
- But the grisly, painful practice is now seeing a resurgence, according to activists, who blame it on remote forest tribesmen’s ‘operational memory’
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It was during a routine check last month for evidence of animal cruelty that a YouTube video caught the attention of Wildlife Trust of India staff. The grainy video showed a crowd of onlookers watching a bear dance, in clear violation of a practice India outlawed in 1972.
The trust’s surveillance team analysed the video and checked car registration plates, eventually identifying Bari Naki village in Bihar state, bordering Nepal, as the location of the performance. The forest department was alerted and three bears were discovered at the village and seized.
Since then, forest department officials have seized five more bears across villages in Bihar and neighbouring Jharkhand state.
“[This] points to a resurgence [of people forcing bears to dance],” said Jose Louies, enforcement chief at the Wildlife Trust of India.
“It’s not just money that villagers pay to see the bear. Once you have a crowd, you can sell them bear hair, claws, or nails as lucky charms to make money,” he said.
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