The 21st International Conference on Bear Research and Management (IBA 2012) will open in New Delhi on Monday. Experts from 35 countries will present 180 research papers in the five-day conference. The conference is being held for the first time in India which has four of eight bear species found in the world.
Vivek Menon, head of Wildlife Trust of India, said, “As a precursor to this conference, we worked with every state and have been able to come out with a specific plan for each state.” He said that since very little information is available about bears, even their numbers being available only as broad estimates, the conference would be a big step in understanding this charismatic species.
With the conference being held in India, this year the focus will be on Indian bears. It also features workshops on human-bear conflict mitigation and rescue and rehabilitation. The workshops are being organised in Srinagar and Kaziranga National Park, Assam.
Talking about the workshops, Mr Menon said that they are being held for government officers, experts and the local administratives and with the objective of coming out with a protocol on how to meet and respond to a situation.
The conference is expected to highlight the opportunities and challenges of bear conservation and offer opportunities for collaboration and information-exchange between people working in research, conservation and husbandry of bears, both captive and free-ranging.
“The two biggest challenges are poaching and human-bear conflict; with conflict emerging as a major problem in the past few years,” Mr Menon said. He also said that despite a 20-year-old ban bear dancing is still practised in parts of India. Rehabilitation of Kalandars or bear masters in India is also one of the key issues to be presented at the conference.
The conference, being held at The India Habitat Centre, will see the launch of India’s National Bear Conservation and Welfare Action Plan, besides state action plans and conflict mitigation tool kit. With the identification of 26 bear range states, the national bear plan summarises the threats faced by bears in India and outlines management actions to be undertaken.
The IBA is the largest conference focused on all eight bear species found across the globe. The conferences are held alternatively in Americas and Eurasia on an 18-month rotation. Hosted by the ministry of environment and forests with Wildlife Institute if India, Central Zoo Authority of India, the conference has themes ranging from distribution and conservation of bears to bear ecology and behaviour.