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Himalayan littering leading to brown-bear habit changes (Environmental Feature)

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By Kushagra Dixit
New Delhi, Jan 2 (IANS) Large-scale littering in the Himalayas by trekkers and campers have led to Himalayan brown bears — a critically endangered species close to extinction — being drawn to human detritus and losing their natural abilities to hunt. Conservationists say such bears rescued recently from different regions of Jammu and Kashmir will never return to the wild.

One such “conditioned-animal”, a nine-month-old brown bear, was found running haywire with its head stuck in a food-can at a campsite for Amarnath pilgrims and hikers in Panchtarini in September. The cub was rescued by the state wildlife protection department, airlifted to Pahalgam and kept under observation for almost two months.

Last week, around December 24, the officials finally sent it to the permanent care of a bear rescue centre run with the help of animal welfare organisation Wildlife SOS, where it will spend the rest of its life.

“The bear seemed to be an orphan and was living off kitchen waste and garbage. They are opportunist feeders and since there is no proper disposal of kitchen waste, especially at the campsites, they become habituated to this, ultimately losing their natural instinct to hunt,” Wildlife Warden (Sourth Division) Intesar Suhail told IANS.

Besides, due to its dependency on the garbage, experts also fear the hostility of people as another threat the bears face.

According to Suhail, this is not the first such instance and he had witnessed several bears living off and wandering around garbage in Dras, the Himalayan gateway to Ladakh, most of which were dumped around army camps.

As in the rest of India, solid-waste management is also an issue in the Himalayan state with summer capital Srinagar alone generating about 450 tonnes of municipal waste every day. Now, this is also affecting the wildlife.

Good hunters and heavy eaters, brown bears stay with their mothers for the first two-three years and, before going into hibernation in winter, eat to their full potential. However, once they begin losing their natural instincts due to alternative and easily-available food sources, they stop hibernating.

“Only wild bears hibernate for about four months as food is limited in winter. However, those under care or those who have become highly dependent on human food waste or crops do not generally hibernate because they are getting their full quota of food,” Pankaj Chandan, head, Western Himalayan Landscape at WWF, told IANS.

Speaking of the shift to alternative food, he said there’s no scarcity of the brown bear’s prey-base, which includes bharal or blue sheep and even ants.

Alia Mir, Wildlife SOS Manager in Kashmir, said that even if the nine-month-old is sent back to the wild, it will perish as it’s too dependent on the human-produced garbage.

“There is no estimate to their population,” Imtiyaz Ahmad Lone, Wildlife Warden (Central Division), told IANS.

Lone, on December 27, “re-rescued” a three-year-old Himalayan brown bear from Sonamarg after the animal was found raiding crops, killing livestock and wandering around the human settlement.

The bear was earlier rescued in October and released into the wild far away from where it was rescued. It, however, returned, Lone said.

“The bear got used to feeding on manure. Such animals lose their natural instincts and their chances of living in the wild are bleaker. Their ability to find food through hunting is lost,” Lone pointed out.

He added that under the Wildlife Protection Act, the priority should always be to return a rescued animal to the wild, but this is not always the option in Kashmir, especially with “seasoned bears”, both black and brown.

“It returned and we had no other option but to send it for permanent care at the rescue centre at Dachigam National Park,” Lone said, recalling that years back, two more Himalayan brown bears were rescued and sent to permanent care. Later they died of old age.

Now, living their life away from wild, in two different high-care rescue centres, the nine-month-old bear will share its space with two Himalayan black bears at Pahalgam while the three year-old-will live along with four others at Dachigam.

According to vets, a Himalayan brown bear may live up to 35 years in captivity and about 27-30 years in the wild. Apparently, the rescued ones will have at least three decades to adapt to their new living arrangements.

(Kushagra Dixit can be reached at [email protected])

–IANS
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Meghalaya Reserves Legalized Gambling and Sports Betting for Tourists

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PureWin Online Betting

The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index

Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.

The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports

Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.

All for the Tourists

The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.

“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.

To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.

Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market

With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.

Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).

Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.

Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.

Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting

Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.

Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.

The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.

If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.

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