Nissar H. Gilani
Memories are one of the most important things one cherish throughout ones life. Among a host of memories I have of my childhood days, are quite fascinating. Srinagar city with 7 municipal Wards then was a common place to witness bear and monkey dancing. Few professionals’ from rural areas would capture bear cubs and monkeys, train them and use them in road shows, sloth bear’s dance to the piercing sound of the drum. Poor creatures orphaned by poachers and trained by their captors, these bears trudged through lanes and by lanes, and even villages to earn their masters a meager livelihood.
‘Zooni,’ name given to the female dancing bear I have seen in my ancestral house at Mallarata forced to perform in front of us and the poor creature was jumping up and down perhaps in pain as her owner pulled at the rope and flogged her with a whip.
Such road shows were accepted by the on looker’s as enjoyable entertainment. Captors of these animals were mostly camping at Kak-saray, near Nawakadal Srinagar, says my friend Jall-u-Din Shah who has tremendous photographic memory. Monkeys too were put on the same show. Behind the show I came to know latter in my life, the brutal methods used to train these bears, giving lot of pain to these poor creatures. Such practices to train the animals were undoubtedly most inhuman to earn a living. Thank heavens the practice has stopped since. Dancing bears were common in the Indian subcontinent for centuries. In Russia and Siberia, cubs were for centuries captured for being used as dancing bears, accompanied by musicians.
Infact not only bears and monkeys but other animals like elephants, horses, lions have been exploited for many reasons by humans since times immemorial. Bear dancing and bear baiting were practiced openly in many parts of the world, including India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.
During our college educational tour in the year 1966 to New Dehli and Agra we saw few nomadic communities known as Kalandars near Agra profiting off captive animals, like black bears, monkey’s and elephants and allowing to interact with them. Kalandar community have been involved in bear dancing work in subcontinent for centuries. They used to make the bears perform in rural areas particularly during the harvest season since at a time of affluence, villagers were more likely to reward the entertaining generously.
We all love entertainment, and even members of the animal kingdom love a bit of a boogie, honey bees dance to communicate, known as ‘Waggle dance’, which was first observed by Aristotle and later investigated by noble prize-wining zoologist kral von Frisch in the 1960s. The noble prize scientist explained that the strange dance was to tell fellow bees where they could find food.
Several animals have been observed to engage in behaviors that resemble dancing. For example certain species of birds, such as the Manakin and the super bird of paradise, perform in tracts mating dance to attract mates. The best example are peacocks performing and elaborate dance to show off their tail feathers to a peahen. This courtship dance signals the fitness of the males to perform. Kangaroo, bears besides chimpanzee, and bobo considered to be closet living relatives of humans who respond to sounds, both rhythmic and random by dancing known as rain dancers. Domestic parrots and elephants are known within the scientific community to be capable of dance, in so far as ‘dancing’ being defined as an un-tutored spontaneous response where the animal moves on the beat, matching motion to music. Even dolphins who are mammals, I have seen in Bangkok amusement park dancing with their trainers in perfect unison with other dolphins.
Some species of fish, such as the Siamese fighting fish, have been observed to perform courtship dances as part of their mating rituals.
Sand hill crane are known for gangly dance. Even dogs enjoy spinning before lying down for many reasons including innate and comfort. Even snakes engage in the courtship dance where two males in a competitive behavior do combat dance till one of them becomes weak or withdraws.
I and my batch mates in P.G. classes of zoology (1971) batch were so lucky to learn few branches of ethology from many learned zoologists including eminent Zoologist Prof. S.M. Das who was H.O.D. Zoology Kashmir University then.
Exploitation for entertainment particularly with wild life (protection) Act, 1992, in force, bear dancing, including bear baiting has been eliminated across the country for good.
It is heartening to know that global wildlife whistle blower program has started working to educate poachers and commoners alike about wildlife trafficking and is trying to engage with governments, international NGO’s mostly those who work directly with the communities local to wild life habitats. This program will help give animals a positive future and a way out to dance in freedom.
Nisar Gilani can be reached at nisargilani57748@gmail.com
