" Horrible, hairy human with paws like hands in prayer,
Thus rises the stately bear
Seeing its towering shoulders and paunch's swing
My heart is touched with pity for the monstrous pleading thing
But beware! The nearer he comes with paws like hands that pray
It may mangle and rip your face away. "
To most of the people in India and abroad, the bears are begging animals, seen in zoos, as harmless and comic beasts, dragged around in the streets and made to perform for amusement. But, wild bears are in fact a constant menace to the humans and their vocations.
The bears, mostly live in hill forests and make short trips to villages around to seek a change of diet or due to unavailability of sustenance. They have poor hearing and poorer eye sight and are acutely irritated at being surprised or approached by humans and so, in a fit of temper tend to attack and viciously maul the unfortunate and unintentional cause 0f their annoyance, mostly human beings.
All Indian bears are black in color. The biggest, the Himalayan bears living in high altitudes, surprisingly have a short coat of fur and are aggressive. Their counterpart, the sluggish sloth-bears thrive in warmer locales of lower altitudes and the foot hills. Comparatively, they have long shaggy fur. The beasts are some what docile, more intelligent and thus, more interesting. Then there is the smaller species, that is most amusing and active , very easily trained and a source of joy to the spectators.
" So life is indeed enjoyment for Bhaloo, he lives with zest
Grumbling and tumbling through the forest hills he goes
The nocturnal robber, much to the awe and mirth of friends and foes."
