Rano | Pakistan

After years of captivity at the Karachi Zoo, 24-year-old female brown bear Rano was flown to Islamabad on Wednesday, where she was moved to a sanctuary for a second chance at life. According to Sindh Wildlife Conservator Javed Ahmed Mahar, Rano was transported to the capital on a Pakistan Air Force C-130 aircraft, which took off at 8:30am and landed at the Nur Khan Airbase a little after 11:30am. From the Karachi Zoo, the bear was first taken to Faisal Base in a wooden brown crate on a cargo pickup truck, which Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) officials said she entered willingly and without having to be sedated. “At just three calls, she walked from the sleeping area in her enclosure and into the crate,” said Sana Raja of the IWMB in a video. She added that Rano did not show any signs of distress and was also eating well. The wooden crate in which Rano is being transferred. Meanwhile, Mahar said that the team continuously monitored the bear on the flight, while Rano, despite the roar of the C-130 e...

The Sindh High Court (SHC) court on Friday ordered a committee formed by the Sindh chief minister to visit the Karachi Zoo on November 2 and prepare a report on the condition of the animals there, including Rano, the brown bear. The case of Rano, a female Himalayan brown bear who stirred public outcry over her ailing health in the zoo, has brought into sharp focus the neglect of animals kept in captivity in Karachi. She will be relocated to a bear rehabilitation centre under the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board, before being moved to Gilgit-Baltistan on the SHC’s directives. In a previous order dated October 17 — available with Dawn.com — SHC Justice Iqbal Kalhoro ordered the committee to visit the Karachi Zoo in the company of petitioner Jude Allen Pereira, Dr Nazeer Hussain Kalhoro from the Sindh Institute of Animal Health, Advocate Jibran Nasir and wildlife photographer Zafeer Ahmed Shaikh and prepare a detailed report highlighting the “number of animals, their physical and mental condition and the circ...

Authorities have started preparations to transfer Rano, a bear currently residing in Karachi Zoo, to Gilgit-Baltistan on the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) directives. Earlier this month, SHC ordered the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to relocate the animal from Karachi Zoological Gardens to the Bear Sanctuary managed by the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board within two days, marking an end to the years-long plight of the brown bear. Today, Chief Secretary Sindh Asif Hyder Shah chaired a high-level meeting at the Sindh Secretariat to review the arrangements for Rano’s relocation, a statement by the secretary’s spokesperson Farhat Imtiaz Janwari said. The meeting was attended by the Secretary Forest and Wildlife, Municipal Commissioner KMC, Conservator Sindh Wildlife Department, representatives from the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board, and other wildlife experts. The participants briefed the chief secretary on the progress made so far regarding the bear’s transfer, the statement added. The Sindh Wildlif...

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday ordered the Karachi Zoo administration to move the female brown bear Rano to a sanctuary within 48 hours, amid uproar over her worsening condition. On October 7, a two-judge SHC bench directed the senior zoo director and Sindh Council for Conservation of Wildlife (SCCW) secretary to appear in court today along with a report about the health of the brown bear. Animal rights activist Jude Allen Pereira petitioned the SHC and submitted that he approached the court in the public interest to seek a declaration of recognition of animal cruelty to the female brown bear, currently confined at Karachi Zoo, in violation of relevant law. A two-member bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro and including Justice Syed Fiazul Hassan Shah, resumed hearing the petition today. Justice Kalhoro expressed his anger at the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). “How could the bear be kept in such conditions,” he asked, in reference to Rano’s condition, and ordered the handing over of...