TNR News Network
Chamba
In a landmark moment for wildlife conservation in Himachal Pradesh, the elusive Himalayan Brown Bear has been captured on video for the first time inside the remote Gamgul Siyabehi Wildlife Sanctuary in Chamba district, offering fresh hope for the survival of one of the Himalayas’ rarest species.
Forest officials confirmed that a female brown bear along with its cub was recently filmed through trail cameras installed deep inside the sanctuary’s rugged alpine terrain. The footage marks the first confirmed photographic and video documentation of the species in the protected forest area.
The breakthrough came during annual wildlife monitoring exercises carried out by the Forest Department in the high-altitude reaches of the sanctuary earlier this month. Officials said the discovery was the result of sustained camera-trap surveillance and extensive field tracking in difficult mountainous conditions.
According to Chamba Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife) Kuldeep Singh Jamwal, the department had first received a possible indication of the species last year when a trail camera captured an unclear image of a male bear on July 28. However, the evidence was considered inconclusive. A clearer image of a male brown bear was then recorded on May 13 this year, prompting officials to intensify monitoring operations in the area.
“Subsequently, the female bear and its cub were successfully filmed on May 20. This is the first authenticated video evidence of the Himalayan Brown Bear in Gamgul Siyabehi Wildlife Sanctuary,” Jamwal said.
For decades, villagers, shepherds and graziers in the remote Pir Panjal region had spoken of sightings and signs of the brown bear, but the species had never been scientifically documented within the sanctuary. Officials said the new footage finally validates those long-standing local accounts.
Wildlife experts believe the presence of the Himalayan Brown Bear points towards a healthy and functioning mountain ecosystem. As an apex carnivore and scavenger, the species depends on stable prey populations and undisturbed alpine habitats.
Jamwal said the discovery significantly enhances the ecological importance of Gamgul Siyabehi Wildlife Sanctuary and indicates that the area could serve as an important habitat corridor for the species in the western Himalayas.
The Himalayan Brown Bear is considered among the rarest large mammals of the Indian Himalayas and survives in scattered pockets of Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand. In Himachal Pradesh, its known habitats are largely restricted to Kugti and Tundah wildlife areas in Bharmour and Sechu Tuan Wildlife Sanctuary in Pangi valley of Chamba district.
The species faces growing threats from habitat degradation, climate change, shrinking alpine pastures and increasing human interference in fragile mountain ecosystems.
Spread across 108.4 square kilometres in Chamba district’s Salooni subdivision, the Gamgul Siyabehi Wildlife Sanctuary lies at elevations ranging from 1,800 to 3,900 metres and shares its boundaries with the Kathua and Doda regions of Jammu and Kashmir.
Interestingly, the sanctuary derives its name from the Hangul or Kashmir stag, once believed to inhabit these forests during the princely era of Chamba. However, no recent evidence of the species has been recorded from the area.
Forest officials said further scientific studies would now be carried out in collaboration with the Zoological Survey of India, while drone-based monitoring is also being planned to track the movement and habitat use of the female bear and its cub.
