Himalayan Brown Bears Are Surviving On Plastic Left By Tourists, Reveals IFS Officer

Have you seen pictures of Himalayan brown bears? They are seriously the cutest. Do you know what they are eating these days? Plastic. Yes, Himalayan brown bears are now feeding on trash left behind by tourists. The endangered bears were seen feasting on a pile of trash, including plastic and leftover food that was left behind by the tourists. This situation was revealed by an IAS officer on his Twitter handle.

Himalayan Brown Bears Living On Trash

Parveen Kaswan, an Indian Forest Services officer, posted some shocking images on his Twitter handle. These pictures feature adorable Himalayan brown bears eating trash left by tourists. The posted pictures were captioned with some facts from a study. The piece was from a study done by the Wildlife SOS and Jammu & Kashmir Wildlife Department.

The study showed that about 75 percent of the Himalayan bear’s diet includes trash food items. The 408 samples collected led to a very alarming conclusion, as 86 of them contained plastic wrappers, bags, etc. He also shared a link to this study for people to refer to and understand the plight of these animals.

Do you know what Himalayan Brown Bears are eating these days. Mostly Plastic !!

An alarming study by @WildlifeSOS & J&K Wildlife Dept revealed that 75 percent of the bears’ diet is garbage food item. 86 among 408 samples contained plastic bags m, wrappers etc. Alarming !! pic.twitter.com/x9gJVUT0W6

— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) December 21, 2022

Also Read: Oh No! Antarctica’s Emperor Penguins Declared Endangered Species

Netizens Urged People To Stop Littering

We all know that Himalayan brown bears are critically endangered. This situation has arisen as a result of unscientific waste disposal. The dietary habits of the bears are also changing as they get lured by the easy availability of food. The tweet went viral in no time and garnered about 101.9K views and more than a thousand likes.

People expressed their disappointments in the comments below the tweet. Many of them were heartbroken after reading the study’s conclusion via the link shared by Parveen. Many pointed out that it’s the duty of the forest department to clean the forest so that animals do not eat trash or leftovers.

Some netizens asked people to not litter the places and come together to save our environment and its flora and fauna. One of the users tagged our Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the tweet and requested that he come up with a ban on all types of packed food items in the Himalayan region.