20/03/19 On the road we stopped to buy powder and water guns for Holi celebration before driving to the volunteering house of the Wildlife SOS organisation, a guesthouse located in a quiet community where we could drop out bags then we visited the sloth bears sanctuary. We learned more about the cruel past of those fluffy bears. Monkeys were running everywhere.
127 sloth bears are taken care of here, in the biggest sloth bears sanctuary in the world. They are already extinct in Bengladesh.
Sloth bears have been traditionally used to entertain the foreigners with bear dancing. This extremely cruel activity requires the owner to drill a hole in the bear’s mouth and muffle to put a rope in it, sometimes a ring, which will be used to give pain by regularly pulling the rope so that the wound wound never heal, and the bear will move or jump (‘dance’) to make it stop. Dancing bears have been used by the Persians as entertainment for 400 years.
Most rescued bears developed stress behaviours due to the captivity conditions and have been traumatised. The centre staff does not have human interactions with the animals and does its best to reproduce the wildlife conditions.
As bear dancing was the main source of income for their keeper, it was not an easy task to take the bears away from them. The programme provides job opportunities to the keepers, their wives, some members of their family and education to their kids. This way they reduce the risk of someone trying to use a bear to get a job offer as well.
The last dancing bear was rescued in 2009 but the sanctuary takes care of other bears too, one came in 2015 from Nepal as a cub, before he got involved in the dancing business.
As per the popular belief, bears love honey, so the crew tries to recreate some games in the enclosure for the bears to hunt for it.
Sloth bears can live up to 25-30 years old, measure 140 to 170cm and weigh 80 to 150kg.
The centre also rescues other animals like snakes that people find or the ones the snake charmers don’t want anymore. What I didn’t know about the charmed snakes is that keepers take the poison out (which helps the snake digesting), and sometimes glue their mouth. So a snake would live 6 months max and die of starvation.
One of the crew members gave us a tour of the bears enclosures, the quarantine where bears were having a snack made of melon and watermelon.
On site we saw many monkeys, running freely through the park. The centre provided us with a vegetarian lunch and we watched a BBC documentary on the sloth bears.
Later Jitu took us to the elephants sanctuary where we also had an introduction video on the elephants and a tour of the centre, where we will work for the next 3 days.
Elephants have been used in temples and for entertainment for 3000 years. Here, elephants have a certificate provided by the government to attest the keeper owns the elephant. Circus, foreigners transport and other forms of entertainment have been the main source of income for the keepers. There are still 2400 elephants in captivity today in India, used by beggars, exploited for tourism, sometimes rent to be on the street.
There are currently 22 rescued elephants in the sanctuary, most under treatment due to injuries or blindness. The biggest issue of the sanctuary is the lack of land, as elephants need a lot of space. In the last 60 years, we lost 98% of the Indian elephants.
After a nice waffle snack at the sanctuary, we had a look at the gift shop where we could buy items made by the locals and wives of elephants former keepers (mahoots) or former bear keepers (kalanders). We had dinner at the volunteering house and some of us enjoyed a drink on the rooftop before going to bed. The locals started a bonfire to celebrate Holi, but we could not join as we were told that drunk men might become a thread. We also had the opportunity to join a yoga class before dinner.
21/03/19 Today we will spend the morning working at the elephants sanctuary. The crew explained to us the poor life of the rescued elephants. One of them has been chained to a temple for 50 years before being rescued, resulting in his front legs being torn so he is not able to walk properly, has abscesses on his hips and a bad infection on one of his foot. Others have been used in circuses or to entertain people at temples or on the street with beggars. Most of the ones here in captivity are still in treatment.
Our team was split in 2 and I got to work with the sugar cane group. Wearing long sleeves, we had to weight the sugar cane by 50kg packs on a giant scale, pull it on a trolley and carry it to the elephants enclosures, where it has to be cut in size that can fit the food cages. Later we also cleaned one of their pools, as they need to be cleaned 3 times a week. The other group took care of cutting fruits, buckets of watermelon and giant papayas.
We only worked in the morning as today is Holi, which all Indians celebrate. We went back to the volunteer house for lunch then took our packs of powder out and started the colourful fight on the street. The neighbours and the sanctuary crew came to play with us, they put the speakers out for some music and a hose so we all ended up soaked in wet colours. We learned some Indian dance moves and had great fun!
After dinner we played a few rounds of the werewolves game that many of us did not know but I think everyone had fun. Despite the fact that we shuffled the deck everytime, poor Katie ended up being one of the werewolves every round, 5 times in a row!
22/03/19 We drove to the bears sanctuary via the bird reserve for a full day of volunteering work. We crossed the river with a little boat to reach the entrance.
The group was also split in 2 and while some of us were building a platform for the sloth bears, the others cleaned a bear pool and the roof of the quarantine building. The equipment provided was very basic and we all thought we could have been way more productive with the right tools. It was an intense day under the heat (about 33 degrees).
We had lunch at the sanctuary and as we had an hour before going back to work, some of us napped on the floor.
In the afternoon I helped cleaning the bears cages and distributed the food made of mashed banana, porridge and some medicine or milk for some. The quantities the bears eat are huge!
We had a chance to visit the bears hospital to see the equipment they use to take care of the bears.
23/03/19 Today we split the day in 2, in the morning we will work in the bears sanctuary where I will help building a platform for the bears, then go for a walk with the elephants in the afternoon.
There are many platforms for the bears as the crew tries to keep the bears entertained and not bored, for their own sanity. The bears have to climb the platforms to reach honey or other food so they stay active and healthy. Some of them have a hard time because they have only known cruel captivity all their life and don’t really know how to get their own food. It felt really rewarding to watch the bears climbing on the new platform we made with poles and ropes. They seemed to enjoy it! It was also tricky sometimes because the bears were still in the enclosure while we were working, under the surveillance of the crew who kept the curious bears away from us. The bears can hurt you really bad with their paws full of very long and sharp nails, even though they are not carnivorous.
The crew regularly welcomes help from volunteers so that they don’t have to work too hard all the time. The bear pools for example need cleaning 3 times a week, there are 14 bear enclosures and at least 4 pools in each, so that the bears can stay cool during the summer months. Their black fur is very long and dense so it is vital to them.
We had lunch at the sanctuary then left for the elephants sanctuary in the afternoon. We spotted turtles and cows when crossing the river again.
This time we visited the elephants hospital, completed in 2008, a giant shed with a crane to help the vet team treating the animals. They also have an elephant ambulance which is the first one in India, a custom transformed truck with room for the mahoot and the vet to keep an eye on the transported elephant. 7 elephants are currently being taken care of, the heaviest weighs 5.5 tonnes!
Siva the crew member told us about the life of the elephants in the centre, especially about a 71 year old elephant who was there for his daily treatment, and the reports that the centre has to provide regularly about each elephant they have. There is also a mandatory post mortem report to be provided when an elephant dies.
We had a nice and hot walk with the elephants out for their evening walk before heading back to the volunteering house.
Carol, a dance teacher in her 60’s gave us a nice demo of her work. Katie got me into the three dance craze challenge, Lexa our guide sang for us and Katie & I tried to master the famous cup song with a box of Pringles. A lot of fun for our last night at the volunteering house! We also collected some money among the group so that the crew can buy an extra cooler device for the bears, a nice way to contribute to their hard work and help the bears in their daily life.
