Post by Christine on Jun 25, 2008 4:17:54 GMT -5
Tale of a pet bear's lost home touches hearts in India
By Gavin Rabinowitz, Associated Press | June 25, 2008
NEW DELHI - It was supposed to be a heartwarming tale of a man who brought an orphaned bear cub home from the forests of India to console his 6-year-old daughter, who had just lost her mother.
But then wildlife officials saw the story in the local media.
Ram Singh Munda was arrested and jailed for violating wildlife laws, the bear was sent to a zoo, where it refuses to eat, and the daughter was sent to a state-run boarding school.
Now animal rights activists are trying to win freedom for the 35-year-old laborer and reunite him with his daughter and the bear.
"We strongly condemn the manner in which the forest department officials arrested the poor and illiterate man, who was not aware of the government's rules and regulations," animal activist Jiban Ballav Das told The Associated Press yesterday.
Munda, a member of the indigenous tribes who live in the forests of eastern India, said he found the sloth bear cub last year while gathering firewood near his village of Gahatagaon, about 125 miles north of Bhubaneswar, capital of India's Orissa state.
He brought the animal home, named her Rani, or Queen, and she became a cherished companion for the family.
Television footage taken at a happier time shows the bear frolicking with his daughter, Dulki, the two of them climbing up on the back of Munda's bicycle.
Wildlife officials saw the news stories and arrested Munda last week for breaking the county's wildlife act, which prohibits keeping wild animals. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.
"I cannot understand why I was punished for taking good care of a bear that was deserted in the forest and would have died had I not brought her home," Munda told a local news channel as he was being taken into custody.
Munda said that when wildlife officials first approached him, he tried to return the bear to the forest but it found its way back to the family's house.
A local government official, Biranchi Nayak, said Munda's daughter was sent to a boarding school until her father is released.
Animal rights activists say that while they condemn taking wild animals out of the forest, the government was being too harsh.
"He never tortured the animal. Neither was he using the bear for any commercial purposes," said Das, of the group People for Animals.
The bear was being kept in an isolated cage at the zoo and was refusing to eat, said Biswajit Mohanty, the secretary of the Wildlife Society of Orissa.
Das said animal welfare organizations were getting legal help for Munda.
"We have decided to give him a job in our animal rehabilitation center in Bhubaneswar as a caretaker" once he is released from jail, Das said.
By Gavin Rabinowitz, Associated Press | June 25, 2008
NEW DELHI - It was supposed to be a heartwarming tale of a man who brought an orphaned bear cub home from the forests of India to console his 6-year-old daughter, who had just lost her mother.
But then wildlife officials saw the story in the local media.
Ram Singh Munda was arrested and jailed for violating wildlife laws, the bear was sent to a zoo, where it refuses to eat, and the daughter was sent to a state-run boarding school.
Now animal rights activists are trying to win freedom for the 35-year-old laborer and reunite him with his daughter and the bear.
"We strongly condemn the manner in which the forest department officials arrested the poor and illiterate man, who was not aware of the government's rules and regulations," animal activist Jiban Ballav Das told The Associated Press yesterday.
Munda, a member of the indigenous tribes who live in the forests of eastern India, said he found the sloth bear cub last year while gathering firewood near his village of Gahatagaon, about 125 miles north of Bhubaneswar, capital of India's Orissa state.
He brought the animal home, named her Rani, or Queen, and she became a cherished companion for the family.
Television footage taken at a happier time shows the bear frolicking with his daughter, Dulki, the two of them climbing up on the back of Munda's bicycle.
Wildlife officials saw the news stories and arrested Munda last week for breaking the county's wildlife act, which prohibits keeping wild animals. If convicted, he faces up to three years in prison.
"I cannot understand why I was punished for taking good care of a bear that was deserted in the forest and would have died had I not brought her home," Munda told a local news channel as he was being taken into custody.
Munda said that when wildlife officials first approached him, he tried to return the bear to the forest but it found its way back to the family's house.
A local government official, Biranchi Nayak, said Munda's daughter was sent to a boarding school until her father is released.
Animal rights activists say that while they condemn taking wild animals out of the forest, the government was being too harsh.
"He never tortured the animal. Neither was he using the bear for any commercial purposes," said Das, of the group People for Animals.
The bear was being kept in an isolated cage at the zoo and was refusing to eat, said Biswajit Mohanty, the secretary of the Wildlife Society of Orissa.
Das said animal welfare organizations were getting legal help for Munda.
"We have decided to give him a job in our animal rehabilitation center in Bhubaneswar as a caretaker" once he is released from jail, Das said.