KARACHI: In a poignant demonstration of compassion and solidarity, Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) on Saturday organized a silent art protest at Gandhi Garden, widely known as the Karachi Zoo, to commemorate World Animal Day, with calls to liberate Rano, a brown bear enduring captivity within the facility.
Rano was brought to Karachi Zoo in 2017 along with an Asiatic black bear who has not been seen since 2020. They were both placed inside a Victorian Era pit that earlier housed Emma, a black bear, who died in 2013.
After Rano was seen alone in the pit, her plight caught the attention of citizens who filed a petition in the Sindh High Court, prompting the zoo to shift the bear to the current cage after the court order.
“We the friends Rano held a silent protest in which students from the Karachi University brought in their artwork to highlight the plight of the lone brown bear,” PAWS co-founder Mehra Omar told Arab News, adding the zoo authorities did not allow the protest until an intervention made by the mayor, Murtaza Wahab.
The Mayor of Karachi, Murtaza Wahab (second left) sits with the members of Pakistan Animal Welfare Society as they hold a silent art protest at Gandhi Garden, widely known as the Karachi Zoo, to commemorate World Animal Day in Karachi, Pakistan on October 7, 2023. (Photo courtesy: Pakistan Animal Welfare Society)
The fundamental reason for holding the protest, she added, was to raise awareness about Rano’s distressed life in captivity and to underscore the urgency of relocating her to proper bear sanctuary.
“Rano does not belong in Karachi Zoo,” she said. “She is a Himalayan brown bear, a wildlife species native to Pakistan. Most likely snatched from the wild as a cub, she has spent her entire life in cruel captivity. She cannot bear it any longer. The only way to right all the wrongs done to her is to let her spend the rest of her life in a sanctuary.”
A protestor holds up her painting of Rano, a brown bear at a zoo in Karachi during a silent art protest to commemorate World Animal Day in Karachi, Pakistan on October 7, 2023. (Photo courtesy: Pakistan Animal Welfare Society)
Omar said the national wildlife rehabilitation center run by the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board would be the ideal home for Rano.
The other option, she added, was the bear sanctuary in Balkasar in Punjab under the Ministry of Climate Change.
“She is frustrated in this completely inadequate cage that was built for her in 2020,” she said. “Whoever designed it had absolutely no idea about the needs of a wild bear.”
Omar said since the bear belonged to a cold climate, it should not be “held hostage in Karachi.”
A painting of Rano, a brown bear at a zoo in Karachi, made during a silent art protest to commemorate World Animal Day in Karachi, Pakistan on October 7, 2023. (Photo courtesy: Pakistan Animal Welfare Society)
She maintained the good thing about the protest was that the Karachi mayor had also visited the camp and assured if the bear turned out to be of Himalayan origin, it would be relocated to Balkasar.
