‘Dumping of waste in open attracting sloth bears into human habitations’

Improper disposal of garbage waste in the town panchayats and municipalities in the Nilgiris is enticing sloth bears into human habitations, leading to a risk of problematic interactions with humans.

Improper disposal of garbage waste in the town panchayats and municipalities in the Nilgiris is enticing sloth bears into human habitations, leading to a risk of problematic interactions with humans.

In recent years, sloth bears have been seen with increasing regularity in towns across the Nilgiris, especially in Kotagiri. Due to regular interactions with humans, the Forest Department has been forced to lay cages to try and trap the animals and relocate them into reserve forests.

However, this strategy is untenable in the long-run, said N.Sadiq Ali, founder of the Wildlife and Nature Conservation Trust (WNCT). “Relocation is essentially a death sentence for territorial animals like sloth bears, who run a high chance of having to fight for territory with other sloth bears, leopards and tigers in their new habitat,” he said, adding that acclimatising to new habitats is also difficult for relocated animals.