THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The forest department has come under intense flak after it bungled the rescue of a male sloth bear that had fallen into the well of a house in Vellanad, near Nedumangad. Instead of emptying the nearly four feet of water in the well first, officials ended up darting the around 15- to 20-year-old bear -- which resulted in its drowning.
People for Animals (PFA) has approached the High Court against the department’s lapses in saving the animal. Forest minister A K Saseendran said an investigation will be initiated to find out what went wrong.
The sloth bear fell into the well of Prabhakaran Nair’s rented house in the early hours of Thursday. It had apparently been attracted by the nearly 15 chickens lodged in the coop belonging to Prabhakaran’s neighbour, Vijayan. His agitated cow’s booing woke up Vijayan, who noticed the thrashed coop.
There were two dead chickens inside, while the rest had escaped. With loud animal moans emerging from the adjoining well, Prabhakaran realised that it was a sloth bear. Immediately the forest department’s rapid response team was alerted and they in turn urged Thiruvananthapuram zoo senior veterinary surgeon Dr Jacob Alexander to dart the wild animal.
According to T Robert, Kannampally grama panchayat member, it was the first time a sloth bear had been spotted in the area. “This is an agrarian area, where wild boar and monkey sightings are common. The bear must have wandered from the Agasthyakoodam forest range, 20km away. It’s a scary feeling that the animal was spotted in a thickly populated area. It could have been saved if authorities had emptied the water in the well first instead of darting it,” he said.
Dr Jacob said the plan of action failed as the sloth bear slipped back into the water as it was being lifted using a net. “The bear was very aggressive and we took the decision not to empty the water. Due to its weight, it fell back into the water through the side of the net. RRT team members climbed down the well to help the animal after I fired two darts. But they had to return due to lack of oxygen. Fire force officers later retrieved the dead animal,” said Dr Jacob told TNIE.
Divisional forest officer (territorial) K I Pradeep Kumar, who was present at the spot, stressed that darting was the only option to save the animal. “The forest veterinarian was on leave and the zoo vet’s service was called for. The postmortem report said the death was due to drowning,” said Pradeep.