India GO
Sloth bear
भालू (bhalu)
A shaggy black bear with a pale V on the chest and a long mobile snout, built for tearing open termite mounds and sucking out the insects.
How to recognise it
Shaggy, unkempt fur and a shuffling walk. The noise it makes while feeding — a loud vacuum-cleaner snuffling — carries a long way.
Protection
Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Where to see it
Agra
The «dancing bear» trade ended in India in 2009, and the Agra facility took in a large share of the confiscated animals. The bears here cannot be released, which is why they are visible at all.
Agra Bear Rescue Facility (Wildlife SOS)
Hampi
Sloth bears were the animals of India's street 'dancing bear' trade, ended in the 2000s. Daroji was declared in the mid-1990s on degraded scrub that has since recovered around the bears.
Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary (often)