KARACHI: In an attempt to address concerns over zoo bear Rano’s wellbeing, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), on the mayor’s directives, has notified a three-member committee to asses her health condition and habitat and submit a report within three days.

According to a Jan 15 notification signed by KMC senior director zoo, safari and recreation, the committee will conduct comprehensive medical/physical checkup of the Syrian brown bear Rano housed at Karachi zoo, and suggest laboratory tests, if needed, to assess her health conditions.

The committee comprises Dr Muhammad Zaheer Khan (convener), a professor at Karachi University’s zoology department and Regional Chair International Union for Conservation of Nature, Commission on Ecosystem Management, Dr Syed Kazim Hussain (member), Member of the Panel of Veterinary Experts, KMC and Adnan Hamid Khan (member), deputy conservator wildlife Sindh.

The experts will conduct an examination of her physical health and habitat, ascertain daily diet and schedule and recommend any suggestion for the species’ wellbeing, the notification says. “The committee may please submit the report within three days for onward submission to Karachi mayor,” it says.

Sources said the decision had been taken to address concerns repeatedly raised by animal rights activists concerned over the female bear’s continued captivity in isolation. They believe that Rano is not a Syrian species but a Himalayan brown bear that has spent her entire life in cruel captivity after being caught from the wild as a cub.

Languishing in a barren cage, Rano was reportedly brought to the Karachi zoo in 2017 along with an Asiatic black bear who died in 2020. The activists demand that Rano should be sent to Balkasar sanctuary in Punjab —the only bear-specific sanctuary in Pakistan.

Also known as the Himalayan red bear, the Himalayan brown bear is a subspecies of the brown bear found in the western Himalayas. It is the largest mammal in the region, with males reaching up to 2.2 meters (7.2 feet) in length, while females are a little smaller.

The bear, whose natural habitat is the cold alpine meadows of Deosai National Park, and other mountain regions of northern Pakistan, is a critically endangered species with only 150 to 200 left in the country, mainly because of human intrusion and destruction of their habitat.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2025