Sloth bears are believed to have evolved from ancestral brown bears
Littered with ruins, Hampi has an ageless spirit around it. The town is a tourist’s paradise with boards and maps screaming out directions and leading you through the various gates and highlighting various monuments of the erstwhile powerful dynasty. Temples, mahals, gates, stables, baths and palaces vie for attention. But we were not looking for them.
Although they appear slow and clumsy, sloth bears are excellent climbers
Our destination was about 20 km away from the town and it was believed to be one of the gateways to this empire. Our agenda, however, was not to see more monuments, for we had moved away from the rocks to rocky caverns, looking for sloth bears. We were in the wildlife sanctuary of Daroji, which the locals say was called Darwaze, meaning gate and they tell me that this was one of the gateways that was forgotten
As boulders give way to the shrub jungles, fowls and francolins rush past us. We see termite mounds and we finally reach a hillock where the forest department has arranged for sweetlicks for the sloth bears. While tourists wait and watch from the watch towers, we are at the foothill of a small rock and can see the bears slowly emerging from the caves. And as we photograph them, we hear a bit of mythology from our guide who traces the Vijaynagar capital to days of the Ramayana.
Anegundi across the Tungabhadra River was believed to be the mythical Kishkinda, the monkey kingdom of Sugriva who was Rama’s ally in the war against Ravana. It is said that Rama’s army crossed Hampi enroute to Sri Lanka. And if myths were to be believed, there was one bear in the army called Jambhavan.
Today, Daroji Wildlife Sanctuary that includes the Bukkasagara range of mountains near Hampi and Anegundi is home to several sloth bears. You can also find leopards, foxes, jackals, hyenas, pangolin along with several mammals and a variety of birds and reptiles.
We watch a family come by, a mother and her cubs only to be chased away by a bully who would like to be all by himself. Soon the cubs peep from the rocks and the bully glares at them, only to find a protected mother charge at them. They start scuffling around and soon go their separate ways. Just when I thought the drama was over, the two bears are downhill, engaged in another scuffle and finally the mother wins, as her cubs emerge and blissfully lick the rocks. The mother joins them as the bully beats a hasty retreat.
Soon the hillock is filled with bears with their cubs blissfully engrossed in licking the rocks. Called Karadi or Bhaalu, the sloth bears are found largely in India besides Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. They were considered originally a species of sloths rather than bears and they were called bear sloths initially because of their slow gait. I am told that it was much after the 18th century when the first sloth bear was shipped from India to Europe where the naturalists renamed them.
Sloth bears are found largely in India besides Sri Lanka and Bangladesh
For a moment, I am lost in their world watching them. The territorial war is over. As they stretch across a boulder and lick, my guide explains that these bears are today threatened due to illegal mining and man animal conflict, especially in fragmented areas of the forests. As we speak, we can hear the distant echo of the dynamite from the hills – almost a sign of man’s greed out there.
A sudden drizzle turns into a downpour, a mongoose walks past us and takes shelter under the rocks, a peacock cries and the cubs shake the water off their furs and continue to lick as we watch them in silence. The Jungle Book of Kipling has just come alive.
Getting there
Daroji Wildlife Sanctuary is about 15 km from Hampi and you would need about half a day out there. Hampi is an overnight journey from Bengaluru, about 364 km from the capital city. Accomodation is available in Hampi and Anegundi. Carry binoculars if you are going to the watch tower. You could get forest department permission and they would arrange your trip to Daroji with a guide.
Unlike brown and black bears, sloth bears have lankier builds and long shaggy coats