Trapped, Dehydrated, and Running Out of Time: The Rescue of a Sloth Bear in Odisha

  By the time Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) rescuers reached the dry agricultural well in Odisha’s Similipal landscape, the sloth bear at the bottom was showing clear signs of heat stress. It was panting heavily.  The adult bear had fallen into a narrow well in Dinashahi village under the Udala Forest Range in Mayurbhanj district, near Similipal Tiger Reserve. Temperatures had stayed high all day, and the bear had likely spent hours trapped inside the steep-walled pit, with no shade and no easy way out.  Forest officials and the WTI team quickly realised the rescue would have to be handled ...