Send Nepal’s dancing bear Rubina to India: Rights activists

KATHMANDU - For years, Rubina, the “dancing bear”, wandered through Nepal’s villages with her gypsy master, beaten, starved and her hair plucked out by superstitious villagers in the hope it would guard them against illnesses.

Last month, though Nepal’s animal rights activists rescued the sloth bear - the species has been immortalised by Rudyard Kipling in his “Jungle Book” - from Nawalparasi in western Nepal, Rubina could be in the fire from the frying pan.

“If Rubina is not repatriated to India, we fear for her life,” says Manoj Gautam, whose organisation Roots and Shoots Nepal, with the support of Wildlife SOS India, rescued the female bear and had her owners arrested.

The bear is now at the Chitwan National Park while Nepal’s wildlife authorities are pondering where she should be kept.

The only home for bears available in Nepal is the Jawalakhel Zoo in Kathmandu valley. However, Gautam says the zoo facilities are substandard and three of the four bears kept there died recently.

One of them was Jangoo, a four-and-a-half-month-old bear cub rescued by Roots and Shoots Nepal in 2008. The starved cub died in the zoo after four months.

Bear-dancing is one of the cruellest forms of “entertainment”, say animal rights activists.

Its muzzle is pierced with a red-hot implement to insert a ring. A rope is then pulled through the ring to enable the bear master to control the animal.

Its canine teeth are knocked out with a hammer while the animal is still conscious and it is constantly hit with a stick on its feet to make it shuffle - which becomes its dance of agony.

Wandering for miles with its master, the dancing bear is starved, dehydrated and subjected to abuse.

It is estimated that there are still about five to 10 dancing bears in Nepal. The owners are mostly Indians who migrated after the Indian government, pressured by animal rights organisations, banned dancing bears.

Gautam says India has evolved sanctuaries where the rescued sloth bears can spend their last days in peace while the owners have been helped to find alternative livelihood.

But in Nepal, where animal rights are non-existent, there is no state help available for the miserable animals.

Gautam says rescued dancing bears need specialised care as they normally suffer from malnutrition, dehydration, damaged feet, gastro-intestinal disorders and worm infestations.

“Nepal at present cannot offer such care,” he says.

Roots and Shoots Nepal and Animal Welfare Network Nepal (AWNN), an organisation that sought to prevent the infamous slaughter of thousands of animals at the five-yearly Gadhimai Fair in Nepal’s Terai, are calling for Rubina’s repatriation to India.

“Nepal at the moment cannot offer the specialised care rescued dancing bears need while India has four bear rehabilitation sanctuaries,” the two organisations said in a press statement.

However, it is doubtful if the government will heed their call.

In the past, it has turned a deaf ear to pleas for an end to animal sacrifices and continues allocating state funds for such rituals though they have been condemned as “barbaric” by noted animal rights crusaders like French actress Brigitte Bardot and India’s Maneka Gandhi.