pune action plans drawn up by 26 states for conservation and welfare of bears was used to draw up a common nation plan which will be released during the 21st international conference on bear research and management in delhi next month the animals are under threat from trade of body parts habitat degradation conflicts with people and poaching for meat according to a census in maharashtra conducted in 2005 there are 871 sloth bears in nonprotected areas and 1066 in protected areas officials from the forest department of the bear supporting states met recently to finalise the national plan on bear conservation and discuss its implementation on ground the meeting was organised jointly by the ministry of environment and forests moef the central zoo authority cza the wildlife institute of india wii and the wildlife trust of india wti it was supported by the world society for the protection of animals wspa and the international fund for animal welfare ifaw state chief wildlife warden s w h naqvi told toi that an action plan for bear conservation for maharashtra was prepared by wti and wii we had given them our inputs on humanbear conflict habitats threats research work and conservation measures that can be taken up he said rahul kaul senior director and chief ecologist at wti said that more than a year ago efforts were on to assess the status of the bears threats they face and other details to prepare action plans these state plans were then used to finalise a common national plan the chief wildlife wardens and other state forest department representatives discussed the national plan draft as well as urgencies needs and difficulties faced by the states in bear conservation their suggestions and changes were recorded for incorporation in the draft plan for finalization the national plan will be released during the 21st international conference on bear research and management to be held next month in new delhi he said s sathyakumar scientist at wii said bears are perhaps better representatives of overall indian biodiversity more than the tiger or the elephant because of their panindia presence most problems to indian wildlife are also represented through bears like trade in living animals and their body parts habitat degradation conflicts with people and even poaching for meat home to four species out of the eight species of bears found in the world india is home to four the himalayan bear the sloth bear the asiatic black bear and the sun bear they are found in 26 states and sloth bears are found in maharashtra