Global News - July 2007

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Fighting in India 'helps rare bear numbers'

Wed 25 July 2007 12:30 UK — Asia

The military and political instability in the Kashmir region of India has helped endangered bear populations in the area.

Wildlife officials revealed that the fighting has helped the endangered Asiatic black bear population in the region to increase by between 30 and 60 per cent, Reuters reports.

The conflict, which has been going on since 1989, has had the side effect of scaring poachers off, helping the bear population to recover.

During the insurgency, more security forces have been on patrol in the pine and conifer forests of the area - where the bears also live - searching for rebels. However, officials said that this had driven away poachers who did not want to get caught up in the conflict.

"For fear of being caught by security forces, militants or in an exchange of fire between the two, no one dares to go deep into forests since the militancy started," Abdul Rauf Zargar, Kashmir's wildlife warden, explained to the news agency.

In addition, this fear has also helped the local leopard population increase.

Asiatic black bears are threatened not only by habitat loss and deforestation, but also because the bile from their gall bladders is prized in traditional Chinese medicine.

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