Karachi: As the city’s weather becomes intense, the hopes of the relocation of Zoo Bear Rano to an appropriate sanctuary for the species in the cold season have faded as the lonely animal continues to languish in a sterile cage.
The sources say that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has not yet implemented the recommendation of its own committee that had suggested the relocation of the bear in a sanctuary in Punjab more than two months ago. The Committee could not hold any follow -up meeting.
“We expected the bear to move to the sanctuary within a month or so. Unfortunately, this could not materialize since there is no progress in his case,” lamented a KMC official, adding that an attempt for his DNA test failed because the team could not collect appropriate samples.
The zoo director was not available for comments.
There is still no action on the advice of experts to relocate the Himalayas brown to the Balkasar sanctuary
It could be remembered that the KMC in the directives of the mayor had notified a committee on January 15 of this year to address the concerns of animal rights activists about Rano who had remained in poor conditions in the zoo for almost nine years.
Animal rights activists say Rano is a brown bear of the Himalayas, a species in critical danger, and not a Syrian species as the Zoo officials affirm.
The sources said that the committee led by a main professor at the University of Karachi and that includes zoos and officials of the Silvestre Department of life carried out a comprehensive examination of Rano and suggested its DNA tests (to confirm the subspecies) and its relocation to a sanctuary of bears in Punjab.
The members in their report had expressed concern about Rano’s “unusual behavior”, suggesting that it is “under stress.”
While the committee expressed satisfaction with the bear diet, physical health and not finding wounds/injuries in his body, he noticed “heavy noise” during the visit. The report declared that the noise seemed to be “beyond the allowable decibels.”
“The species can be transferred immediately to the Osos sanctuary in Balkasar until the confirmation of the species/subspecies through the DNA sequencing. Any two nominees/advised by the senior director will visit the sanctuary of bears to verify the installation before displacing the female brown bear,” says the report.
He suggested that the competent authority can make the decision to change the bear to an appropriate habitat once its species be confirmed.
According to the reports, Rano was taken to the Karachi Zoo in 2017 along with an Asian black bear who died in 2020. Activists demand that Rano be sent to the Balkasar sanctuary in Punjab, the only specific sanctuary of the bear in Pakistan.
Also known as the red bear of the Himalayas, the Himalayan brown bear is a subspecies of the brown bear found in the Western Himalayas. It is the largest mammal in the region, with men that reach up to 2.2 meters (7.2 feet) long, while females are a little smaller.
Posted in Dawn, April 10, 2025
