A dancing bear

London, Jan. 5: An animal charity in the UK has announced it has just rescued its 500th dancing bear from the streets in India and that it will send perhaps as much as half a million pounds in 2009 to top the £400,000 it sent in 2008 to continue to finance the work.

The money is used to rehabilitate handlers from the Kalandar tribe, who have traditionally used bears since the time of Mughal emperors for the entertainment of the public, and also to run sanctuaries in India where the animals are allowed to roam free for the rest of their lives.

The funds are raised in the UK by International Animal Rescue, a charity based in Uckfield, East Sussex, and which works closely with Wildlife SOS, the organisation that runs the sanctuaries in India.

A rescued bear at the Agra sanctuary

It is pointed out that “dancing bears suffer terrible cruelty during their lives on the streets, resulting in lasting physical and psychological damage”.

According to the UK charity, rescuing the 500th animal “is a major milestone in the campaign to cut free all the dancing bears in India and provide them with a safe haven for the rest of their lives”.

It said “Chitra, a female sloth bear, has just been surrendered to the 35acre Bannerghatta bear sanctuary near Bangalore. Chitra is approximately 12 years old but weighs a scrawny 62 kilos. When she was rescued she was frightened and timid and crouched on the floor expecting to be beaten”.

A statement was issued on behalf of Geeta Seshamani, of Wildlife SOS, which said: “Chitra’s muzzle was painfully swollen and inflamed as it had been pierced several times in the past, resulting in a huge tear down one side. The ring had been inserted into her delicate muzzle when she was just months old and it was biting into her delicate skin and infected with pus. We had to remove the ring surgically along with her neck ropes that were also very tight. Chitra’s canine teeth had been knocked out, with great trauma to the roots, and she came in suffering a longstanding mouth inflammation with ulceration inside.”

Alan Knight, the chief executive of International Animal Rescue, who has visited India to supervise the work of his charity, said: “We are well on the way to ending the trade in dancing bears in India altogether. By nominating 2009 as International Animal Rescue’s Year of the Bear, we aim to give a new impetus to the campaign and rescue all the remaining bears off the streets. In the New Year, we will be promoting a new bear adoption programme which will enable our supporters to sponsor individual bears in our sanctuaries and follow their progress back to health.”

The happy picture painted by Rudyard Kipling of Baloo the Bear in The Jungle Book, as he provides affectionate parenting to Mowgli, belies the reality of the harsh existence of dancing bears.

Lis Key, the communications manager of International Animal Rescue, told The Telegraph that the Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, backed by Maneka Gandhi, rendered bear dancing illegal. But International Animal Rescue understood that for the law to be effective, equal effort had to be put into helping the Kalandar tribe people find alternative livelihoods.

Key said they receive Rs 50,000 a bear and also assistance with training for new jobs while their children are encouraged to go to school.

The first six bears were rescued on Christmas Eve 2002 when the sanctuary in Agra opened its doors. The bears are too damaged, though, to be let loose in the wild, and are placed in three sanctuaries, the 200acre one in Agra which now holds 300 animals, another in Bhopal, “which is more of a temporary holding centre”, and the third in Bannerghatta.

The sanctuaries recreate life in the wild as much as possible. Snakes rescued from charmers, another practice that is technically illegal, “are released into the sanctuaries where they co-habit with bears”, said Key.

It was believed that another 500 dancing bears were in need of rescue. “Now, we believe the number is 120-130 in all of India,” according to Key.