Sloth Bear (Bhalu) (Melursus ursinus)
Bhalu the bear
These animals are reputed to be the exact opposite of what has been popularised by Rudyard Kipling as “Bhaloo the bear”. Some reports say that they can be more dangerous than Tigers which is probably true as the eyesight of Sloth Bears is not too good and they are known to attack at the slightest provocation.
Trackers and guides also say that tracking / spotting a Sloth Bear in Kanha is 10 times more difficult that doing the same for a Tiger, this I can vouch for as till our previous visit we had only heard about the Sloth Bear but never seen one.
However this time we had very close encounters with not one but two of these creatures on two consecutive days. Each time the bear was least bothered and we could observe the first one for almost 1.5km as it ambled along marking trees and the second one as it demolished and clean up a termite hill at his leisure.
These pictures are from the first encounter - taken early morning - light was poor and I was too scared to use a flash. Swati however has a great 10 min video of the entire episode.
Originally published at http://tariquesani.net/blog/. Please leave any comments there.