Two Sloth Bears Found Dead on Rail Tracks in Maharashtra’s Gondia District

Gondia: A female sloth bear and her sub-adult cub were found dead on railway tracks in Maharashtra's Gondia district, the state forest department said on Friday.

The carcasses were spotted by a Railway staffer on train tracks on the Gondia-Balharshah route near a small tunnel within the Arjuni Morgaon forest range of the eastern Maharashtra district on Thursday, the department said.

Preliminary probe suggests the animals were killed in an accident, said forest department officer Sadashiv Awghan.

The carcasses were later disposed of as per guidelines of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

The sloth bear is protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and the animal is listed as ‘vulnerable’ by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of threatened species. 

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