A white sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) of the myrmecophagous bear species has been spotted in Marwahi Chhattisgarh. Sloth bears are rare in India. The dusty-black bear are more easily found. A bear like this was spotted three years ago in 2020 in the Koriya district of Chhattisgarh.
On Thursday, a white bear was seen in Madakote village under the Marwahi range of forest division. Marwahi forest department officer, Satyamev Sharma said, “He looks, adult. He was seen roaming in the rocky forest of Madakote with a female black bear. Some villagers made a video of it. It is known that Madakote is a dense bear forest area of the Marwahi forest division. Where the presence of a large number of bears has been recorded.”
After the last sighting of the white bear, it was never spotted again, and now this video which has come to the fore.
DFO said, “The Forest Department was assuming that it had become extinct.” The bear was spotted by a native who made a video of it. They tried to inform Marwahi’s forest range officer, Daroga Maravi, about the sighting of the white bear, but most of the staff was missing from the field.
On December 21, 2020, a white bear died after falling into a well in the Andi village of Marwahi. Sources said the information given to the Marwahi forest department about the sighting of the White bear in 2020 was ignored.
Sharma said, “The forest staff has been asked for complete information about the sighting. Instructions have also been given to make a report about the place where the bear has been seen.”
Chhattisgarh is known for its daily human-animal conflict. On November 10, viral video of a dog chasing a bear and forcing it to run out of the enclosure of the house came to light. Two weeks ago, Ganesh Dhruv, the Badgaon circle president of Gondwana society, had taken cattle and cows to graze in the forest. It is being told that while returning from the forest, three bears attacked him. These included a female bear and two cubs.