2 Asiatic black bear cubs ‘smuggled from CHT’ rescued in India’s West Bengal

Two Asiatic black bear cubs, a highly-protected species, which are suspected to have been smuggled to India from Chattogram Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, were rescued by Indian police near Hasnabad in West Bengal's border district of Basirhat on Friday night.

The cubs, which were handed over to the state forest department on Saturday, were later shifted to Alipore Zoo in Kolkata, our New Delhi correspondent reports.

Acting on a tip-off, a special operation group of Basirhat district police conducted a raid at around 9pm local time on Friday at Murarisha-Ghoshpara under Hasnabad police station area on India-Bangladesh border, SP of Basirhat Joby Thomas said.

"The area falls under Basirhat sub-division. The raid was also conducted on some hutments at a village in the border area. Later, the two cubs were found in a desolate area on the border and rescued," he said.

"We suspect they were smuggled to India from Bangladesh and the smugglers abandoned the bear cubs on seeing the police action," Thomas added.

The forest department was informed soon and a team of vets reached the spot and attended to the cubs.

Thomas said the police are probing the involvement of an international racket that smuggles wildlife.

Member-Secretary of West Bengal zoo authority, Sourav Chowdhury, said the cubs are around two-months-old and they were being hand-fed at the Alipore Zoo with milk and honey.

"They are doing fine. Both are male cubs and each weigh around 2.5kg," he said.

Regional Deputy Director of Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (east), Agni Mitra, said "There were earlier information about illegal smuggling of Asiatic black bears through the border. It's possible they were brought from the wild in Chattogram Hill Tracts. We will alert Bangladesh officials."

Asiatic black bear is a protected species under India's Wildlife Protection Act and categorized as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its Red list, Mitra added.