This Saturday, if you drop in at The Little Door in Andheri, you'll find a display of silk scarves, key chains featuring cloth elephants, bear-themed bags and other accessories crafted by women of the Kalandar community
A sloth bear with frozen treats at a rescue centre set up by Wildlife SOS
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This Saturday, if you drop in at The Little Door in Andheri, you'll find a display of silk scarves, key chains featuring cloth elephants, bear-themed bags and other accessories crafted by women of the Kalandar community. Originally gypsy nomads, they were dependent on sloth bear cubs, cruelly training them to be 'dancing bears'.
This was until 2009, when Wildlife SOS, a Delhi-based non-profit set up in 1995 by Kartick Satyanarayan and Geeta Seshamani, successfully rallied to abolish the practice and rehabilitated the community. The exhibits, priced '50 onwards, are part of their fundraiser. The proceeds will go to the development of the community and animal welfare.
Kalandar women learn tailoring as part of a skill-training course
"We work with Kalandar communities in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. As an alternative livelihood, men were given seed investments and help to set up shops. The women are trained in tailoring and jewellery making," says Satyanarayan. The team rescued over 620 bears that are now being taken care of at four rescue centres across India.
Kartick Satyanarayan feeds an elephant
Since 2010, the conservationists have also established elephant rehabilitation centres in Mathura and Haryana to offer natural habitat and medical treatment to severely abused and captive pachyderms living in urban environments. "Several of them have spent a majority of their lives doing hard work in harsh and cruel conditions," he adds. The exhibition includes a collection of padhchinhs that are original elephant footprints on canvas.
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